MatchGame 2000

There was a time when you could put your lips together and blow, extinguishing the smoky trail from a match languishing between the fingers of a charming stranger who turned to light your fire. With smoking restrictions in full force, however, many restaurants have stopped handing out matches that might otherwise promote such sultry encounters. So who isn’t afraid to make a match?

Palm, Spago Beverly Hills and Pinot, for starters, still offer matchbooks that list their locations. “Often people are surprised to learn we have a restaurant in St. Helena and Las Vegas,” says Pamela Mosher, a spokeswoman for Pinot. “People go to a nice restaurant and they want a little proof that they were there. It’s a souvenir.”

“People bang on the door early in the morning, pointing to the matches,” says Karol Godwin, hostess at Harry’s Bar and American Grill in Century City. “And they don’t take one, they take stacks!” Harry’s matchboxes flaunt a sunny painting of Hemingway’s infamous haven along the River Arno.

Indeed, many establishments celebrate the little book. “I like the tangible memento and nostalgic quality of matches,” says restaurateur Sean MacPherson, who asked artist Jim Heimann to design a series of matchbooks for his Good Luck Bar in Los Feliz. The books feature tiny dragons, the bar’s interior and Chinese characters. “It’s a fine little way to communicate your personal sensibility,” MacPherson says. “I like the implication of decadence.”

“Matches have a utility value,” explains Jerry Anderson, Los Angeles sales rep for Atlas Match, the largest manufacturer of advertising matchbooks in North America. “People don’t discard them until they are used up.” Though many restaurants have stopped ordering matches, Anderson says the numbers are up for those that do, including Musso & Frank, Mirabelle and the Ivy. Atlas also supplies small note pads designed like matchbooks, which L.A. Farm and Off Vine have embraced.

“Our guests are always asking for paper, so we thought it was a clever idea,” says Off Vine’s owner, Nick Salamone. The Hollywood eatery offers both paper and matchbooks, he says, “because almost half of our seating is outside, and smoking is permissible.”

Downtown, Ciudad provides a book of wooden toothpicks, creatively arranged like matches. Unfortunately, when it comes to striking up a conversation, they are rather flame retardant.