THE CIGAR ROOM

The Cigar Room is an evening for members in the middle of March, at which nothing is presented, nobody speaks from the front, and the conversation finds its own subject.

The Form

The Court examines things properly at three other gatherings in the year. Wine is poured blind and scored. Perfume is smelled in its parts. Cloth is chosen from bolts with a tailor explaining what each will do.

This is the evening where nothing is examined.

There is no tasting, no notes, no expert and no order of service. What is put up is put up because somebody thought it was good. A member who wants to know what it is may ask. A member who does not may smoke it in ignorance and enjoy it exactly as much.

That is deliberate. A room in which everything is being appreciated is a room in which nobody is talking about anything else, and some pleasures are damaged by being studied.

The smoking room exists because of a smell. Victorian houses banished tobacco from the drawing room, so the men withdrew to a room of their own, kept a jacket there to take the smoke, and changed back before rejoining the company. The arrangement rested on an exclusion and that is not defended here.

But what it produced by accident was the only room in the house with no purpose. Nothing was scheduled in it and nothing was expected of anybody in it, and a great deal got decided there precisely because nothing was supposed to be.

The Evening

A small selection is put up and a bottle set beside it. Twenty-five places. The room opens at nine and closes when it closes.

There is no sitting down and no hour of arrival. Members come when they come, and a member who arrives at eleven has missed nothing, because there was nothing to miss.

A small selection is put up and a bottle beside it. Both are chosen by the Court and neither is explained.

The chairs face one another rather than a fire or a screen, which is the only piece of staging in the room.

What Is Asked

The code is stated in the invitation.

Nobody has to smoke. It is a room rather than an obligation, and a member who comes for the company and the bottle is welcome in it.

Telephones stay in pockets. A photographer attends, and photographs the room rather than the people in it: the chairs, the table, what is put up, an empty glass. What is worth keeping is sent afterwards.

Nobody is pitched at the table.

The Places

Twenty-five. It is the number a room of that size holds when everyone in it can still hear everyone else. A member may bring one guest by arrangement, and answers for them.

Members are written to in February. The sum is stated in the invitation and covers the whole of the evening.

How one becomes a member is set out under Admission.

Questions

What is the Cigar Room?

The Cigar Room is an evening in the middle of March in New York, for twenty-five. The Court puts up a small selection with a bottle beside it, and nothing is presented or explained. The room opens at nine and members come when they please. The 2027 date is to follow.

What does one wear to the Cigar Room?

A lounge suit; the code itself is given in the invitation.

Who may attend the Cigar Room?

It is for members of the Court, by the Court’s invitation; members are written to in February. A member may bring one guest by arrangement, and answers for them. Nobody has to smoke, and a member may come for the company and the bottle alone. How one becomes a member is set out under Admission.