The Spectator Cigar Smoker of the Year Dinner took place at Boisdale of Canary Wharf on Sunday night.
It was a pain to get to – engineering works meant part of the Jubilee line was shut – but neither that nor the rain deterred 200 people from turning up.
Founded by Boisdale it was the second such event and lessons had been learned from last year's somewhat chaotic evening that culminated in Simon Le Bon winning the trophy and making a less than audible 'speech'.
This year we were promised "a triple A-list celebrity as a guest of honour" and the organisers delivered. Not just one but two: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Kelsey Grammer.
Grammer took his runners-up award with good grace. (Any other year he would have been a shoe-in for the main prize.) He genuinely seemed pleased to be there. "I'm so thrilled by the company this evening … I have met the most lovely women."
A mature lady at my table confessed she had thrown her arms around him and given him a big hug as he returned from the toilet. It's a tough life but he wears it well.
As a devoted fan of Frazier I was delighted merely to be in the same room as the great man.
Schwarzenegger also exuded star quality as he told guests, "As a body builder and as a movie star I’ve won a lot of awards, but this is the most ... recent."
He mocked the "crazy" smoking restrictions in California that prompted him to build a "smoking tent" in a courtyard outside the Governor's office.
Pity he didn't amend or reverse the legislation whilst he was in office, but that's another issue.
The presentation of the awards followed a champagne reception on the covered smoking terrace and dinner in the restaurant where we've hosted the Forest Freedom Dinner since 2012.
On arrival we were given a humidor bag containing a "New World selection" of five cigars plus lighter and cutter.
Grasping my bag in one hand and a glass of champagne in the other I went in search of a familiar face, without much success.
Truth is, the Cigar Smoker of the Year is very different to the type of event Forest puts on. Tickets cost £250 for a start but guests can well afford them. (I was on a freebie, before you ask.)
The first person I talked to was a young merchant banker. I then had a long chat with an older woman who worked in the City before 'retiring' to buy and run a London pub.
After selling it for a substantial profit she moved to the Algarve where she set up and ran a very successful fish 'n' chip shop!
Unfortunately evenings like this expose the chasm that exists between different types of smoker.
Speaking to guests several expressed a love of cigars but a disconcerting disdain for cigarettes. Even Boisdale, an oasis for all smokers, calls its smoking area the 'Cigar Terrace'.
To be fair I've never heard Ranald Macdonald, MD of Boisdale and a long-time supporter of Forest, rate cigarette smokers any less deserving of our support than cigar smokers.
The same goes for Jemma Freeman, MD of cigar importers Hunters & Frankau, but snobbery is rife in the cigar world where people are happy to suck up to ruthless dictators in countries like Cuba, for example, but are less willing to align themselves with the humble cigarette smoker.
Thankfully Sunday night's MC Tom Parker Bowles drew no such distinction when he referred to the principles of libertarianism "in an age where government is threatening to become bigger, more bossy and more interfering, where a person’s right to smoke in a car can become a crime, for God’s sake."
Finally the value of having a high profile celebrity at an event like this was never more obvious. The Independent, Mail Online, City AM and London Evening Standard all covered it, while the Mail featured extensive photos of the evening's two stars.
See also: Arnold Schwarzenegger wins Spectator Cigar Smoker of the Year Award (Spectator)