Q. I disagree with your advice to A.B. (8 September) about enlisting a restaurant management’s support to go on smoking his cigar despite the displeasure of the nearby patrons. We can assume that they booked in the garden because they liked the fresh air. The etiquette for any cigar smoker has always been to ask the people around him if they would mind before he lights up.
—J. McC., Geneva
A. This protocol will often backfire, as so many people do mind. However, cigar rooms and lounges are becoming de rigueur in top hotels. The Lanesborough and Bulgari boast the facility, as will the new Wellesley Hotel in Knightsbridge, which is about to open with a lounge and terrace offering one of the world’s largest collection of cigars. When you are not in one of these protective bubbles, however, a graduate of the Davidoff Ladies Masterclass in cigar-smoking says: ‘Do not ask if anyone minds if you smoke a cigar.
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