Dinner Hosts Taking the Stodgy Out of Their Stogies

Flaming teddies!

As if anybody needs to sell more cigars, competition for fans of the leaf has lit the fires of creativity among restaurateurs and hoteliers everywhere.

Or at least in Orange County, where they’ve come up with blind cigar tastings, events featuring stogies and spa cuisine--and a lingerie show that’s a real smoker.

That’s right. While some cigar dinners become ever more hoity-toity, others are getting down-and-doity. Friday night at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach, Portofino Cigars is throwing a Smoker Dinner and Lingerie Fashion Show (information: [714] 645-5000, Ext. 177). The dress code is black tie; $150 per person includes the show, dinner and six cigars (including the super-premium Hamilton and Astral brands).

“You add sex to cigars, and something happens,” Portofino co-owner Scott Gayner says. “Something magic.” Someone else might wonder if the ash is about to fall, if the cigar fad is down to its butt, when cigar nights give way to cigar nighties.

But that’s not the, er, end of it.

Friday afternoon, as part of the World of Food and Wine weekend at the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point, there’ll be a blind cigar tasting. The organizers of Friday’s bash will remove the cigar bands and affix numbered stickers. Swirl, Sip and Smoke, $75 per person, also will feature rare cognacs and speaker Richard Carleton Hacker, author of “The Ultimate Cigar Book.” (714) 489-5897.

Rhona Kasper, author of “A Woman’s Guide to Cigar Smoking,” will talk Saturday at a Ladies Smoker Luncheon being sponsored by Portofino at the Balboa Bay Club. This one is $45 per person. (714) 645-5000, Ext. 177.

Eschewing typical “manly” cigar dinners--with lots of beef and Roquefort--Twin Palms in Newport Beach has hosted two low-fat women’s events; spokesman Carollynn Wolff characterized the most recent as “almost like a slumber party!” A third Ladies Light Out is in the works.

Next up at Twin Palms, however, is an event called Big Trouble in Little Havana on Nov. 11. Described by Annie Hallajian of Newport Tobacco as “cigars and sizzling pig,” it will feature Latin American cuisine and libations, a and a Brazilian jazz band. Guests are encouraged to bring backgammon boards and chess sets. $65 per person. (714) 644-5153.

“I’m up to my ears with the same boring format,” said Hallajian, who is organizing the event. “At some point, people [get beyond] the stage where they need to be told, ‘Here, hold your cigar like this.’ They want to have fun.”

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