$40,000 raised for scholarships

In a setting permeated by the thick scent of cigar smoke, a seemingly

endless supply of red wine, and the kinds of jokes men tell when

their wives are away, about $40,000 was raised Friday on behalf of a

scholarship fund benefiting Newport-Mesa students.

The scene Friday was the Balboa Bay Club & Resort’s 11th annual

Gentlemen’s Smoker and Lobster Clambake.

Dieter Hissin, the resort’s food and beverage director, said 135

men -- women were off the guest list that night -- came to fire up a

supply of 3,500 cigars, chow down on lobster and filet mignon, and

throw back about 100 different kinds of liquors.

“I don’t want to portray this as a drunk fest -- it’s just a nice

evening,” Hissin said.

Near the conclusion of Friday’s event, George Lysak, the resort’s

executive director of sales and marketing, estimated that the

evening’s auctions garnered $40,000 for the Balboa Bay Club

Scholarship Fund, which provides college funding to students

graduating from the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

During the bidding, two men decided to shell out $7,500 each to

eat one of the final meals served at The Arches’ current digs on West

Coast Highway. Arches owner Dan Marcheano told bidders he plans on

inviting Marines from the elite First Force Recon unit to join the

winning bidders, “if they will take the time to dine with you mutts.”

The Arches’ lease runs out next August, Marcheano said Saturday.

He wants to keep the restaurant in Newport Beach but has yet to pick

a new spot.

“We still don’t know where,” he said. “I’ve got three things going

right now and, to be blunt, we’re not even at the point where I can

talk about them.”

Marcheano, a retired Marine, has at least one more fundraising

ploy in mind connected to his restaurant: letting people compete for

a chance to drink the last cocktail served at The Arches’ current

location.

“I may do something that’s going to cost them a lot of money, and

we’re going to give it the Marines,” he said.

Henry Schielein, president of the Balboa Bay Club, said he

started hosting cigar dinners 21 years ago at the Ritz-Carlton in

Boston. He earned one of the night’s loudest bursts of applause when

he thanked the cigar companies who donated stogies for the event.

“I very humbly want to say, Muchas gracias,” Schielein said.

* ANDREW EDWARDS covers business and the environment. He can be

reached at (714) 966-4624 or by e-mail at andrew.edwards@

latimes.com.