

Here in Chicago, many suburbs are voting on whether or not to become "smoke
free." To my knowledge, it has only passed in two small cities, but is being
debated in two more. A few comments:
1. I worked for a large chain that experimented with splitting the bar into
non-smoking and smoking sections. However, it was in the same room and it just
didn't work - the non-smokers were still pissed off about smoke, and the
smokers resented being told to move to "their" section. Experiment lasted one
month.
2. The last place I worked at was a fine dining restaurant. The bar attached
to the restaurant was non-smoking and the downstairs bar was a separate
smoking lounge. The smoking section was heavily promoted by the owners with a
piano singer, fire place, and plasma TVs. Consequently, it was always busier.
However, there were quite a few people who commented that they loved the
downstairs bar but couldn't handle the smoke and complained to the owner to
have non-smoking nights. It never went anywhere.
3. Another place I worked at was well-lit and very well ventilated. (a few
bitched that the smoke fans were too loud.) Never really had complaints about
smokers except from the afternoon food crowd. Seemed to be the best compromise.
4. I have also worked in very busy, very smokey bars. Non-smokers just avoided
the place. Few complained because they knew it wouldn't help. We were still
always busy, but I used to be shocked at how much residue there was on all the
mirrors, windows and bottles. Tough on non-smokers to work weekend nights.
Is there a solution? I don't know - the libertarian view makes a lot of sense
to me, but really smokey bars can be quite hard on the non-smoking employees.
I can't see how banning smoking is the answer either - the New York experiment
is still too new to make definitive comments. On the other coast, many
California bars are now non-smoking. I can only suggest from my experience
that 30 years ago, it was a very rare restaurant indeed that had ANY
non-smoking section. Movie theaters and grocery stores also permitted smoking.
When I was a young server, the non-smoking section was usually the worst
station in the place, usually stuck next to the bathrooms or the bus stands.
(looking at the floor plan it was always derided as "non-smoking,
non-drinking, separate check, non-tippers.") Who knows how far the pendulum
will swing and how fast?
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