Cigar dinner designed for big men

Friday, March 1, 2002 | 9:57 a.m.

Some men are satisfied with living small lives -- the size of a snapshot.

Others live life large -- Cinemascope-sized, with panoramic vistas and in broad strokes.

For them, to be alive is to be hyperbolic.

To celebrate "livin' large," Cigar Smoker magazine will host a Big Man Dinner Monday at the House of Blues Foundation Room at Mandalay Bay.

Jonathan Scott, founder of the Chicago-based publication, says the event will be an evening of "big drinks, big steaks and big cigars."

The Big Man Dinner has been an annual event in Chicago for the past four years. Scott said he recently decided to branch out and create a similar celebration in Las Vegas, of which this will be the first.

"Las Vegas is the greatest cigar city in the world," Scott said during a recent telephone interview from his Chicago office.

Not only are there a number of cigar bars and clubs in town, many fine restaurants accept cigar smokers.

"We may have a smoker in Las Vegas every month," said Scott, who is a regular visitor to the city.

Scott said the idea for the Big Man Dinner came to him when he weighed 285 pounds (he's since dropped to a svelte 215).

"I used to be a fat guy and I wanted to have a Fat Guy Dinner," he explained. "I was tired of dieting and I wanted to celebrate living large, with big drinks and a heart-slamming dinner of breaking bread and eating red."

A friend of his, Tim Laird with Korbel Champagne, convinced him to tone it down.

"Tim said I needed to dress it up a little," Scott said.

So Fat Guy became Big Guy.

"The first one was at Jilly's Sinatra Bar in Chicago," Scott said. "About 100 people showed up. Our formula was simple: big steak and potatoes and big cocktails and big cigar desserts -- chocolate cigars served in ashtrays."

There was also a scotch tasting event, in which glasses of scotch were lined up according to the liquor's age, youngest to oldest.

"By the time you reached the 18-year-old scotch you were pretty snockered," Scott said.

He said the formula he and his business partner, Marty Tunnell, created for the event has proven to be successful and will be followed in Las Vegas.

"We'll give out half-a-dozen big cigars when they walk in the door, and that's worth more than the price of admission," Scott said. "Everything else is a bonus."

Last year the magazine, which Scott describes as a People-type magazine for cigar smokers, created a Big Man Humanitarian Award for those who have made major contributions to their communities. Former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka was the first winner.

Las Vegas resident Robin Leach, famous for the TV series "Lifestyles and the Rich and Famous," and one of the city's most visible celebrities, has been selected for this year's Big Man of the Year honors.

"He's a great ambassador for Las Vegas," Scott said. "You can't live life any larger than Robin."