To: Chicago Tribune ; kbergen@tribune.com
Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2005 10:11 PM
Subject: Letter to the Editor: Mom and pop bars could get smoking-ban break - Madison, WI/Chicago, IL
Chicago Tribune
Dear Editor,
cc:  Kathy Bergen, Gary Washburn
 
RE:  Mom and pop bars could get smoking-ban break
 
I am a smoker and have been since I was sixteen.  I also refuse to quit and never will unless I am stranded on a desert island.  I have never even tried!  I like smoking...I enjoy it!  I am ashamed of smokers who make excuses for smoking and apologize for themselves.  It's time smokers speak up and explain why they boycott non-smoking hospitality environments. 
 
I also find it difficult to believe that so few smoke-free proponents and non-smokers are able to understand the business differences between small privately owned restaurants/bars and large restaurant chains.  I truly sympathize with small businesses struggling to survive under governmental smoking ban oppression, but I will not patronize them and become a victim too. 
 
"Lettuce Entertain You" and similar trendy spots cater to those who want to see and be seen in a popular place.  In an enforced non-smoking environment, the dinner tables turn more frequently because most parties do not stay long when they can't smoke.  Diners naturally create smaller dinner checks, costing more in labor to buss and set up tables and require an increased food supply, because increased customer volume is necessary to remain profitable. The chains simply raise prices on the menu and recoup their losses.  Smaller, individual businesses' customers will not accept these arbitrary price hikes as easily. 
 
Nonsmokers' tables turn on an average of twice as often as those serving smoking parties.  I have observed this undeniable difference for years in every type of hospitality environment.  So, smoking bans mean profit margins are greatly reduced.  Smokers might as well go to a coffee shop or a fast food place, if they are to be treated like cattle and be herded in and out, simply to fill their stomachs and leave. 
 
All the ambiance of dinner in a small or an elegant restaurant is completely lost.  The same applies to having drinks in a bar or cocktail lounge.  The still unproved health horror stories about second hand smoke are destroying dining as an entertaining, cultural and rewarding experience.  Dinner or drinks in a non-smoking environment is a farce for smokers.  If customers can't relax with a cigarette or cigar before dinner and another one after dinner, with coffee and an after dinner drink or meet with friends for a drink and a cigarette in a bar, what is the point of the entire activity?  The real goal for the patron is to experience some relaxing enjoyment and not to be reminded of tyrannical controls, that have been implemented against our will, to control our activities.  Of course restaurant and bar business revenues will be hurt by any smoking ban....how can it be otherwise? 
 
I refuse to stop for a drink or have dinner in a non-smoking environment....it is uncivilized.  If non-smokers don't like it, they can go elsewhere to enjoy their sterile lives and keep their "clean" air to themselves.  I refuse to share "my" environment with anti-smoking health extremists or their paranoid disciples.  If unconstitutional smoking ban ordinances won't allow smokers....the answer is simply....don't go where you can't smoke!
 
Sincerely,
Garnet Dawn
The Smoker's Club, Inc.
Midwest Regional Director
The United Pro Choice Smokers Rights Newsletter - http://www.smokersclubinc.com
Illinois Smokers Rights - http://www.illinoissmokersrights.com/
mailto:garnetdawn@comcast.net - Respect Freedom of Choice!

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Mom and pop bars could get smoking-ban break

By Kathy Bergen, Tribune staff reporter. Tribune staff reporter Gary Washburn contributed to this report
Published October 27, 2005

 
At Ole-N-Rick's Northside Inn, a blue-collar tap in Madison, Wis., sales have fallen about 50 percent since a citywide smoking ban took effect July 1.

The owners of the shot-and-a-beer spot, two retired firefighters, have cut staff hours and beer prices, and they are thinking of throwing in the towel.

We've lost all those third-shift guys who used to come in," said Terry Olson, co-owner of the 16-year-old bar and grill. Now, workers from a local bindery and a food plant are driving to taverns in a nearby village where smoking is allowed.

The experience at Ole-N-Rick's speaks volumes about how smoking bans are affecting businesses--a crucial question in Chicago, where City Hall sources say a sweeping smoking ban ordinance proposed by Ald. Ed Smith (28th) is expected to be approved Thursday by the City Council's Health Committee, which Smith chairs.

But by the time the measure reaches the council floor for a final vote, free-standing taverns and bars in restaurants that are separate from eating areas could be exempted in an attempt at compromise, the sources said.

For polished restaurants in prime locations nationwide, the fallout from smoking bans appears to be negligible. And such bans are virtually meaningless for fast-food chains, many of which banned smoking years ago.

But the government-imposed bans can deliver an economic blow to some operators, primarily to mom and pop taverns near towns that have no bans.

"If you are a restaurant or bar owner in a fringe area of Chicago, and you've got another city across the street from you, you could be dramatically affected," said Greg Ortale, chief executive of the Greater Minneapolis Convention and Visitors Association.

He's watching this phenomenon play out in his own back yard. Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis, adopted a smoking ban on restaurants and bars this year, while some of its neighbors have no bans or have less restrictive ordinances.

"We're dealing with a situation where these are family-owned businesses, many running for three or four generations," Ortale said. "If they close, they are gone forever, and what happens to the stability of the neighborhood?

"We believe if there's going to be a ban, it needs to be statewide, so there's a level playing field," Ortale said.

In Chicago, the potential impact on small enterprises is a big issue, said Colleen McShane, president of the Illinois Restaurant Association, who noted that 70 percent of the city's restaurants are mom and pop operations.

Dan Cullinan, who owns Cullinan's Stadium Club in the Beverly neighborhood, says he's sure a smoking ban would mean lost business at his bar and grill.

"Seeing as the nearby suburbs have similar establishments, they are likely to pick up a lot more business," he said. "I'm afraid you'd start seeing less traffic in businesses on Western Avenue."

The restaurant association is willing to go along with a ban in dining rooms, but not in adjoining bars or in stand-alone bars, McShane said.

Many restaurants rely on alcohol sales for their profits, she said. And, "alcohol and cigarettes go hand in hand," she said.

Nationwide, 262 municipalities ban smoking in restaurants and 193 ban it in bars, according to the American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation. Just what that has meant for businesses, in dollars, is difficult to pin down. More than 150 studies have been conducted in various jurisdictions, with mixed conclusions.

New York City found tax receipts from bars and restaurants rose 8.7 percent in the 10 months after a smoking ban went into effect on March 30, 2003, compared with the same period the prior year.

In Dallas, where smoking was banned in restaurants, hotels and bingo halls as of March 1, 2003, alcohol sales declined 3.6 percent in 2003, according to a study prepared for the local restaurant association. A more recent study, however, found no evidence of a shift in restaurant business to the suburbs. Permits for new restaurants grew slightly in Dallas while declining in a neighboring county.

In the county that includes Minneapolis, the ban on smoking in restaurants and bars took effect March 31. A subsequent study found liquor sales in the second quarter continued to grow, but at a slower rate than in the year-earlier quarter. "There is some evidence that smaller businesses were more likely to show a decline in liquor sales and less likely to recoup the decline through increased food sales," the study said.

In contrast, smoking bans around the country don't seem to be fazing high-profile restaurants.

At Morton's, The Steakhouse, a sumptuous meal can include not only a prime, aged steak, but an after-dinner cognac and fine cigar at the bar.

"We are cigar-friendly in states where it's legal," noted Patty Pleuss, vice president of marketing and sales. But some of the chain's 69 restaurants are in cities or states where smoking is banned in restaurants and bars. And surprisingly, the bans "make no difference in our business," she said. "People come to Morton's for our steaks."

Other prominent Chicago-based restaurant companies, including Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises Inc. and Levy Restaurants, report smoking bans have little or no effect on their businesses.

"When large cities have gone non-smoking, we've seen no impact other than healthier guests and team members," said Chris Harter, president of Levy's restaurant group.

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