But Mario's Place, in Riverside, cuts to the chase. No big trays of hors d'oeuvres. Drinks are from the bar, no host. And the beauty of Mario's Place is that the smoker night dinner price is also simple: $35. And it's every month.

You see, the big deal cigar parties are movable feasts, once every six months or maybe annually. Mario's Place smoker nights are the first Monday of every month. Three simple courses. Three good cigars.

You'll begin with a soup or salad. If it's the mushroom soup, it's excellent. The entree is usually Angus beef, but it could be pork loin. Cigar smokers are meat eaters. The third course is a chocolate dessert.

A better-educated palate than mine might debate the house wines. I won't. It was Mario himself, God rest his soul, who first introduced me to better wines back in the early '80s when the restaurant stood in it's earlier incarnation on Magnolia Avenue between the car wash and the used car lot.

Today it is at Spruce and Iowa, just off of the 60 Freeway, and it's run with a sense of taste and tradition by Andrea and Leoni Palagi, also known as Elenor's boys by those of us who have met their mother.

A word should also be said here about Dennis Hurley. He runs the Tinder Box in the Galleria at Tyler in Riverside and he is the tobacconist for these monthly events. Some of the expensive places I mentioned earlier feature a local cigar hand wrapper or the local distributor of one national brand. Hurley selects from his entire stock, choosing various labels to suit each course.

If these monthly events took place in Santa Monica, or even Palm Springs, you would probably have to stand in line with the likes of Bruce Willis or Steven Spielberg in the hope of getting a seat. But this is Riverside. There are no lines. The crowd is small and almost intimate. Like I said, Mario's Place likes to keep it simple.

Mario's Place is at 1725 Spruce St., in Riverside. For more information, call (909) 684-7755.