Customer with horrible BO, what would you do?

Here's a tricky situation, I'm wondering what other restauranteurs would do?

Saturday evening, my mother taking the boyfriend and me out to celebrate boyfriend's birthday at a trendy Italian restaurant in New York's West Village, an area chock-a-block with trendy Italian restaurants serving lovingly prepared $20 pastas, but we happened to like this one most particularly.

We were happily eating a quite tasty dinner when a large party was seated nearby. Shortly afterwards, we were hit with a horrible, horrible smell. New Yorkers know that smell, when you walk into a surprisingly empty subway car only to realize it is in fact full of an oppressive odor emanating from a sleeping man in the corner.

We mentioned the smell to the waitress, who said she thought it was coming from the table next to us, and once the source of the odor was identified the source was clear. It was funny to watch the restaurant staff independently sniff around the restaurant trying to figure out the source of the stench for themselves. But we knew, because we were in the thick of it. I called over the manager, and made him aware of the problem.

He apologized and said there was nothing he could do. I understand that the restaurant isn't responsible for the hygiene of all patrons. but our dinner was ruined. We got the rest of our food in a doggie bag and left hastily, without lingering over the birthday dessert we were expecting to enjoy. And we'll never be back.

I'm wondering how other restaurant industry experts would handle the situation?