David Savona

A Crazy Smoking Policy

Posted: Jul 16, 2007 11:43am ET

I shot a leisurely 18 holes the other day with my brother-in-law. We took a cart, which makes it much easier to smoke cigars. The course was playing a bit slow, so I fired up a Punch Double Corona on the fifth tee box. It lasted until about the 13th or 14th hole, when I lit a La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero Lancero.

The cigars seemed to help my game, and I finished with a par. We had some time to kill and I still had half a smoke left, so we ambled up to the deck of the course’s restaurant, called Quatro Pazzi, Italian for "four crazies."

A waitress came over and we ordered a pair of Sam Adams beers. I asked for an ashtray.

“You can’t smoke here,” he said, “because there are people eating.”

Now I’m the last guy who wants to spoil someone’s meal by blowing smoke in their face, but I was sitting outside, with nothing above my head except an umbrella. And this is a huge restaurant. There are two large dining rooms inside, plus a porch that seats more than 100 people.

“Where’s the smoking section?” I asked.

I was told I could smoke a step off the patio, on the walkway leading to the restaurant. Which meant I couldn’t smoke at all.

Instead of food, we stuck to the beer and made an early exit. And that’s the last one I’m going to buy at that restaurant, unless they welcome my cigar.