Fledgling Club Ignites Interest of Ventura’s Cigar Smokers : Lifestyles: Tony Blake hopes that the social group will elevate the status of stogies and bring acceptability to those who indulge in them.

Tony Blake wants to blow a lot of smoke these days.

In fact, the grandson of a Cuban tobacco farmer can think of nothing better than blowing it in the faces of those who support smoking restrictions--those he believes have forced his comrades and him into hazy back rooms to enjoy their habit furtively.

Instead, he’s lighting up and seeking revenge by forming Ventura’s first cigar club.

“We’re banding together to thumb our noses at the nonsmoking smoke police,” the Santa Paula marketing director said of his fledgling Ventura Cigar Smokers Society.

Tired of nasty looks from vegetarian friends who force him out to the back porch when he lights up a cigar during their parties, Blake decided last winter to seek fellow cigarophiles willing to flaunt their politically incorrect habit.

So far, he has gathered about 24 members by spreading the word at cigar shops and events known as smokers--where stogie lovers can sample several types of cigars during an evening of fine food and wine.

He charges no dues. The only requirement for membership is a love of cigars.

The society doesn’t have a formal meeting schedule yet, but Blake hopes to bring members together for a variety of smokers, from a bring-your-own-tri-tip back-yard barbecue to a $100-a-plate black-tie event at a local hotel. He plans to hold the society’s first event this summer.

Meanwhile, he keeps members updated about local smoking events and trends by phone, newsletter and chats every Tuesday night on America Online.

When not smoking one of the 2,000 cigars that can be found in his walk-in humidor, Blake spreads word of the club at local smokers, which have drawn cigar lovers out of their back yards and garages and into Ventura restaurants to share their habit in public.

Actually, the restaurants must close to the public and play host to the smokers as a private group, under the city’s nonsmoking ordinance.

In fact, some local cigar lovers are already getting together informally. These gatherings have been sponsored by gift shop owner Larry Muro, who said he was persuaded to sponsor an event close to home by customers who usually drive to Los Angeles to enjoy cigars, sip cognac and eat among strangers.

Thirty local residents braved the worst rains of the season to attend the first smoker in January, a dinner where participants feasted on salmon and prime rib while comparing the nuances of premium cigars like judges at a wine-tasting competition. The second event attracted 50 people in April, even though the price jumped from $45 to $60. At 66 California, manager Frank Parong said he plans to hold at least two more smokers at the restaurant this year.

Jonathan Boring, 22, of Oxnard and his twenty-something friends were at the recent smoker discussing how to properly light cigars and arguing the pros and cons of Juan Clemente’s and Avo 2s when Blake approached about joining his society.

Boring, a self-described cigar expert whose only stogie affiliation is his $12.50 membership in Sanctuary Tobacco Shop’s cigar-of-the-month club, was a bit skeptical.

But he said he would do some research.

“You have to be picky about the smokers you go to,” he said. “Sometimes they try to pass off bad cigars on you because they don’t think you know anything. Always try to find out what cigars they’re providing before you put your money down.”

Blake said he would provide only premium cigars at his events.

To pass anything else off would be risky, he said, because his club is open to true smokers, not wanna-bes from Los Angeles and Hollywood who use cigars only as status props.

“In Los Angeles, cigar smoking attracts people who have lots of money or pretend to have lots of money,” Blake said. “In Ventura, you find people who have a love for the sacred leaf.”

What separates Ventura smokers from many of their rich and famous counterparts to the south is that they were smoking cigars long before it became a fad. Most of those attending the Ventura smoker had been sampling cigars for about five years.

Cigar experts, on the other hand, say the trend hit the big cities only three years ago. Since then, private smoking clubs and $250 black-tie dinners have sprung up in many trendy California towns.

Schatzi on Main--Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Santa Monica restaurant--holds smoking events the first Monday of each month. Maitre d’ Kathy Smith said the common folk should make reservations a month in advance for the event, and they just might see some smoking stars.

“We never know which famous people are coming in,” she said. “They don’t call and make reservations like they should.”

Danny DeVito, Rob Lowe and, of course, Arnold have chomped on cigars during smokers at the restaurant, which are a bargain at $50.

Officials at Cigar Aficionado--a New York-based publication founded in 1992 to keep stogie lovers informed--said people are organizing smoking clubs all over the country.

Niki Singer, an executive cigar-smoker who serves as senior vice president, said the magazine has put out a supplemental publication with instructions on putting on a smoker. She’s sent them to cigar lovers from Hawaii to Kansas.

“It used to be that smoking events were only organized in cities like New York, Los Angeles or Miami,” she said. “Now, instead of being this smelly old habit, it’s been put in the category of very trendy.”

Ventura smokers say they will be savoring stogies long after the habit has gone the way of frozen yogurt and Hula-Hoops because many younger smokers are trying them and getting hooked. Most of those attending the local smokers and signing up for Blake’s society have been in their mid-30s and 40s.

In the future, Blake said he hopes to purchase a building for the society, envisioning a club with humidor-style lockers where men--and women--who love cigars can mingle, watch sporting events, drink and, of course, smoke.

Smoking lost some of its popularity when the threat of cancer and the reports on secondhand smoke emerged. Even Blake admits that his doctor has advised him to cut down to one cigar a day, which he has done, reluctantly.

Boring, who bragged that he has persuaded his girlfriend and several other female friends to chomp on stogies after a long day at the office, hopes that such a club would provide a refuge for those outcast by increasing smoking restrictions.

“There used to be two images of cigar smokers,” Boring said. “One was the garbage man, smoking cheap, machine-made cigars. The other was a movie star, a guy who had really made it. It’s time someone filled in the gaps.”

Simi Valley banker Steven Roche, who also attended both local smokers, said the biggest perk of a club would be coming indoors. “At home, even on the coldest winter night, our wives send us to the garage to smoke our cigars,” he said between puffs.