Ashes to (no) ashes

By NATE HUBBARD/Staff

Virginia’s new restaurant smoking ban may be bringing cleaner air to the lungs of diners around the state, but it isn’t bringing many smiles to the faces of local restaurateurs.
On Tuesday, a law passed by the General Assembly and signed by Gov. Tim Kaine earlier this year took effect banning smoking at nearly all Virginia eateries.
According to a fact sheet on the new law provided by the Virginia Department of Health, the main exceptions to the ban include: private clubs, restaurants with designated smoking rooms that are both structurally separate from non-smoking dining rooms and separately vented, mobile outdoor food carts and outdoor areas of restaurants that are not enclosed.
Bowling alleys, skating rinks, convenience stores, gas stations, bars, lounges and similar facilities that prepare and serve food are included in the new ban.
Although the Health Department’s information states that 70 percent of fast-food and full-service restaurants in Virginia were already smoke-free before the ban went into effect (and various statewide polls have shown that a majority of residents are in favor of the ban), local restaurant owners and workers interviewed Thursday said they’ve heard far more grumbles than cheers from their patrons.
“They aren’t happy about it,” said Frances Umbarger, a clerk at the Bland Square, a small eatery in the town’s Citgo station, “but they understand it’s nothing that we could control.”
“Whether we like it or not, it’s the law.”
Umbarger said the new smoking ban has been a popular conversation topic around the station.
“I’ve heard lots of comments – most of them negative,” she said. “I take it that our governor’s not too popular in this area.”
Cathy Sarver, owner of Turn One Restaurant and Sports Bar in Wytheville, estimated that 75 percent of her customers are smokers.
She said Thursday that business had already fallen at her bar since the ban began.
“I have noticed a drop in sales in the last three days,” she said. “People just don’t like it when they can’t smoke and drink.”
Sarver is already working on renovating Turn One to provide a separately ventilated smoking room.
She said the adjustment of the restaurant’s ventilation system has been completed and the walls to create the separate smoking room should be up within the next few days. The owner said she’s doing everything she can within the law to keep Turn One smoker-friendly, such as making the walls of the smoking room clear glass so smoking customers can still easily get the attention of bartenders in the main eating area.
At Turn One on Thursday night, customers said they felt like it isn’t the government’s place to force private business owners to alter the design of their establishments if they want to continue to allow smoking.
“I hate the ban,” said Todd St. Clair, who was helping out at the bar Thursday night and regularly plays gigs at Turn One with the bands Shot Tower and Gasoline Alley. “I think it should be up to the individual proprietor.”
Customer Jimmy Boss, a nonsmoker, said he wasn’t angry about the ban, but he wasn’t excited about cleaner air either.
“It really don’t matter to me,” he said.
Paul Phipps, a nighttime bartender at the Wohlfahrt Haus Dinner Theatre’s Matterhorn Restaurant & Lounge, said reaction to the ban has been “mixed-match.”
While he said a few customers have said they were happy to be able to go out in a smoke-free environment, many others have been upset about having to take their cigarettes out into the biting wind.
In warmer weather, Phipps said the ban won’t be as much of an issue as smokers will be able to comfortably puff outside at the restaurant’s outdoor Bier Garten, already a popular gathering place.
In the meantime, Phipps said a wind screen is slated to be put outside to make the outdoor area more sheltered for quick winter smoke breaks.
Phipps said the lounge didn’t experience a drop in business during the week, but he said he’s concerned about the weekend turnout. From contacts with restaurant workers in other states that have had their eateries subjected to smoking bans, Phipps said most have seen business fall for a few weeks before smokers decide they still want to socialize at their regular hangouts.
“They still want to come out and be with their friends,” he said. “We’ll grin and bear it.”
Restaurant patrons weren’t the only people cranky about the new anti-smoking law. Many eatery owners and workers themselves weren’t too pleased about the regulations.
“What I have to say about it, you probably can’t put in the paper,” said Cheryl Turner, owner of Rural Retreat’s Back in Time Diner.
Before the ban took effect Tuesday, smoking was allowed throughout Back in Time.
Turner said smokers were considerate of nonsmokers and that she always had fans going to keep the restaurant well-ventilated.
A smoker, she also acknowledged that her customary three packs a day isn’t healthy.
But Turner said smoking shouldn’t be banned if cigarettes remain a legal product from which the state continues to collect taxes.
“I’m very frustrated with it,” she said. “It’s always on the smokers. … Smoking is a nasty, disgusting habit, but I’ve got it.”
Turner stressed that she’s enforcing the ban at Back in Time and said she’s doing her best to remind herself not to smoke even when she’s doing paperwork back in her office.
She said, though, that if she forgets to leave her cigarettes in the car, it’s hard to remember not to light up.
“I’ll probably be the first one they fine,” she said with a what-can-you-do laugh, before again adding that she’s trying her best. “I go outside with the rest of them.”
Anyone caught smoking in a restaurant or any restaurant owner who allows smoking is subject to a $25 civil fine.
During regular inspections, the Health Department will ensure that no smoking signs are posted and that ashtrays have been removed from the tables.
If restaurant owners fail to comply, a citation will be noted on publically available restaurant inspection forms.
Umbarger, the Bland Square worker and also a smoker, said she’s concerned that the smoking ban will change the character of the eatery.
She said a group of morning regulars often lingered to shoot the breeze long after they finished eating, but many enjoyed smoking while they chatted.
“I don’t think they’ll stay as long,” she said.
Like Turner, Umbarger said she feels like smokers are often unfairly singled out.
“It’s just another right taken away,” she said.
Of the restaurant workers interviewed, the only person who said the new smoking ban hasn’t elicited many complaints was Steve Smith, the associate manager at Wytheville’s Cracker Barrel franchise.
“Haven’t heard anything negative yet,” he said when asked about the new law, despite adding in response to a follow-up question that one-third of the restaurant used to be reserved as a smoking section.
In conjunction with the state regulations, Smith said the Cracker Barrel corporation has also instituted a new requirement that employees working at its Virginia restaurants are no longer allowed to smoke anywhere – inside or out – on the store’s property. Customers, however, are still allowed to smoke outdoors.
Although he’s a smoker, Smith said the company gave the employees plenty of notice about its new policy and that it makes sense for it to go hand-in-hand with the new state law.
“It’s going to be good for everybody,” he said.
Despite her harsher words, Back in Time’s Turner agreed that in the end there’s little use in getting overly worked up about the ban.
“I don’t agree with it, but what can you do?” she said. “You can’t fight the government.”
Staff photographer Jean Farley contributed to this report. Nate Hubbard can be reached at 228-6611 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).