It’s the entire state. My sister works in a restaurant/bar on the Tacoma waterfront and she claimed the place would go out of business because of the smoking ban. Now she says business has actually picked up a bit and she has noticed her health has improved a little now that she doesn’t have to breathe second hand smoke.
Yeah, it was kind of funny how it came in. The law passed, and for a year or two was not enforced. Then, they got serious about it, and started citing bar owners who were letting people smoke. At that point, I decided the whole thing had been a plot by the people who build patios and supply torch lighting, awnings, outdoor heaters, etc. Every bar that did not already have an outdoor patio area sprouted one if the owner could figure out any way at all to accomodate it. And in the middle of winter, people got to smoke under the dripping awning, bundled up and huddling around the heater. I suppose it was even a more realistic experience for watching football games on the TV the bar owner might stick outside.
Even when smoking is legal, would there not be significant risk of lawsuits against a place that allows smoking due to the risks of second hand smoke to employees?
yeah I know that going out to a club is one fuck of alot nicer experience than it used to be.
with the smoking I would get home voice all horse and stinking like crazy from all the smoke, a shower was manditory and the clothes I was wearing had to get burried in the laundry to kill the stench so I could sleep.
You’d have to find an employee who wasn’t helping to generate secondhand smoke.
Business may be up overall, but I know of at least one dive bar (The Quarry on Georgia Ave in Silver Spring) that had to close because their regulars were all smokers, and all started going to DC to get their smoke on. I think the smoking ban coincided with a local economic boom in MoGoCo, and helped to mask the few outliers like The Quarry.
I remember quite clearly when the restaurant smoking ban came into play here in CA. I was at first quite offended that I wasn’t able to smoke at Lyons whilst we waited for our food and that was a restaurant with an attached bar. Don’t drink now, but remember thinking that I’d have a hell of a time if I were drinking at a non-smoking bar. Alcohol brings out the nicotine jones like nothin’ else. Hand-in-Hand. Even makes non-smokers want to smoke. THAT I don’t understand.
Nowadays when we vacation somewhere like Vegas, I’m appalled that there are people two feet from me smoking while eating. I can’t believe I EVER enjoyed smoking at the dining table. YUK!
Smokeless bars will succeed as restaurants have. You simply forget after a time that you were ever allowed to partake in the first place. I’d think it’d be a serious draw for the folks who really dislike smoke and smokers. I just read that the Marriott chain of hotels will soon be completely smoke-free. THAT will make my life harder. If I ever get to vacation again that is; what with these two small monsters I call children.
No cite to hand, just anecdotal evidence from back home.
My parents’ town is just on the British side of the British-Irish border, directly opposite another Irish town. When the Irish imposed a blanket smoking ban, many expected pub business to boom on the smoking side of the border, but it just didn’t. There is of course the issue of different currencies to cloud things slightly.
Anecdotally, Madison bars went smokeless about a year ago. restaurants had been smokeless for so long that I had literally forgotten that people smoked in restaurants and I was shocked a couple years ago when on a vist to Des Moines someone lit up near my table. Anyway, the tavern league was beating its collective breast about how all the bars in town would wither and die because everyone would go drink in Fitchburg or Monona or one of the other little villages that surround Madison on all sides. A year later, other than the dedicated cigar bars (which there should’ve been an exemption in the law IMHO but I digress) only one or two bars closed, and they were struggling financially before the ban anyway.