“I want people to feel like they’ve had an experience that can’t be put into words,” says Justin Fornal, author, field researcher, and founder of the Bronx Pipe Smoking Society’s Small Game Dinner.

It's 9 p.m. on Saturday night, and I'm standing next to a trio of beverage dispensers, watching a parade of decadently dressed partygoers examine their contents. A man in a pink dress shirt and a pith ...