Smoking in Restaurants. Your preference?

[Ciao Mickey]

I would rather eat in a totally non-smoking restaurant.

 

[shortbun]

We're doing well in Ohio as well. Before the state went non-smoking, we'd seek out cities that were non-smoking to eat as well.

There is no such thing IMO as a non-smoking section at a restaurant. No matter where I sat in a non-smoking section I could smell the smoke.

Another Ohioan weighing in here. We LOVE the non smoking rule! Actually, it's an amendment to our constitution which I thought overkill but nonetheless, we are much happier not worrying about smokers while we eat.

 

[darlak]

In my area (central Alabama), restaurants that tried going smoke-free saw a dramatic decline in business. Then the county decided that all restaurants that allowed smoking would lose 4 points off of their health rating for continuing to allow smoking. That leveled the playing field somewhat since the majority of restaurants then went smoke-free and non-smoking restaurants saw their business gradually stabilizing to what it had been previously.

I don't make my dining decision on that factor and am grateful that I don't need to do so for health reasons. I can say that the hardest restaurants in town to get into now are those that continue to allow smoking. I respect them for refusing to allow their decision on the matter to be dictated to them. I also had respect for those restaurants that went smoke-free before it was dictated to them. They are privately owned businesses and that decision should be theirs to make. Just as it should be the decision of the public whether to patronize them or not based on that decision or any other.

BTW, I am a smoker. but it doesn't matter to me at all whether a restaurant is smoke-free or not. Well, that is unless the food takes a long time to arrive.

Flame away, but I just think the private business owner should have the right to make that decision for their privately owned business.

 

[arminnie]

I am so glad to hear that the UK has finally gone smoke free.

I have not been back in about 4-5 years. The last time I was there I just felt like smoke was EVERYWHERE, and it literally made me sick. I thought I was going to die from the smoke. It took a couple of weeks for my lungs to get back to normal.

I used to go on business several times a year, but since our office was smoke free it never bothered me as much as it did when I went as a tourist. I remember checking into my hotel, and everyone in line was smoking. It was a really posh hotel near Harrods.

I think I'll plan a return trip next year. Love, love, love the theatre in London - none better.

 

[Cool-Beans]

I prefer not to be around smoke because it smells gross.

However, I'd rather eat in a restaurant where the owner is free to make his own decisions about how to run his business than one where the government forces him to do things their way.

So, I'll take a little smoke if that's what comes with freedom of choice.

But, given that the owner is free to make his own decision, I'd like a non-smoking section.

 

[Liberty Belle]

Non-smoking. I don't smoke and I hate the smell that lingers after someone else does. I don't even like going through the backpacks at school of the kids whose parent's smoke. They stink.

All area restaurants here are non-smoking. The smoking ban was implemented a year or two ago and the restaurants (and bars) seem to be doing just fine.

 

[Kathi OD]

Non smoking here as well. DH and I frequent a restaurant that has been smoke free for about 5 years and the place is always packed.

From what I've seen at this and a few other restaurants we go to, I don't think that the smoking/non-smoking issue really affects the amount of business a restaurant does. If they have good food the people will come.

 

[solferino]

I won't eat in a restaurant that allows smoking. Thankfully it's not a problem here in MA.

 

[yasmina]

I'm with you. I believe it should be the decision of each individually owned establishment.

I'm a smoker also, but I had no problems at Disney this summer, on my trip to Quebec with 100 middle school kids (a time when a ciggie was desperately needed at times! LOL), or during my 4 days in the hospital in Sept.

 

[Jen_in_NH]

I'd prefer a non-smoking restaurant, given a choice. I don't mind a bit of cigarette smoke, but a haze of it is a bit much.

I never really understood the idea of the smoking sections - smoke just seemed to waft throughout the building. A local group of kids around here had an youth anti-smoking ad campaign going a while back. They started asking "smoking or non-smoking section?" and then compared it to "peeing in the pool section or non-peeing section" and "cook who washed their hands after using the bathroom section, or cook who never washed his hands section" I honestly have no idea if the comparisons are even remotely close, but it did make the kids think. Which, in the end, is all that mattered.

 

[Pooh Girl 71]

I live in the heart of Tobacco Country......I can't see the government enforcing no smoking in all restaurants.

I'll often choose the smoking section cause there is so little wait time involved.

 

[Golf4food]

Totally non-smoking for me. While I think that inflicting a slow death on yourself is your choice, don't try and kill me, too. NH is doing great with it's smoking ban in restaurants.

Amen. With all the proof we have about the ill effects of smoking on the health of both the smoker and anyone nearby, it is a joke that it isn't a banned substance yet. I look forward to that day. It is an addictive drug that kills. There is no way to defend it and no reason to defend it. The day Florida made all restaurants non-smoking was a wonderful day. Now if they would just ban smoking in ALL public places - indoors or outdoors - I could breathe easier - literally. As could my asthmatic wife. Those of us with allergies or asthma who literally cannot breath around cigarette smoke have rights, too.

God will call me home when the time is right - I don't need anyone's cancer sticks helping me get there faster.

 

[WaltD4Me]

Flame away, but I just think the private business owner should have the right to make that decision for their privately owned business.

ITA with this. I think if you own a business it should be your business what legal activities you allow to go on inside it. At the very least, I think exsisting businesses should be grandfathered and have a choice about allowing smoking or not and only new restaurants/bars who have the advantage of knowing about the ban before opening should have to adhere to the ban. Then if those restaurants that still allow smoking want to change over themselves in the best interest of their business they, of course can.

Here in Ohio, I know the ban doesn't seem to be effecting restaurants much, they are just as busy as before, but I do know a few bar owners that have taken big hits and one who told me that after 30 years, he is probably going to have to close after the 1st of the year. He did a big after work business (mostly factory workers who apparently smoke) and the he-man sports crowd, he said his "Sunday football" crowd has dropped to less than 1/2 and it was his biggest money day. I just don't think it's right that he and probably others like him, are being "forced" out of business through no fault of their own.

 

[minnieandmickey]

One of the things I like about living in CA is the non smoking law. In fact it throws me and DH off when we do go to a state that asks smoking or non.

 

[Green Tea]

I would prefer an all Non smoking place. Around here there is always a long line for non smoking. The smoking side is generally pretty empty. I think if owners made the dining rooms non smoking they would make more $ because they would be moving a much higher number of people through. Would smokers really quit eating out if they couldn't smoke until after dessert?

 

[Mickeyluver37]

I find smoke disgusting and I support any ban on it. It is a matter of public health, and I think a full out ban actually helps establishments that want to be smoke free. If you choose to go smoke free, and you are the only one, you're more likely to go out of business then if there is a statewide ban and everyone has to comply.

I agree that smoking sections are a joke. We lived in NY before the smoking ban was implemented and there were even smoking "sections" in fast food restaurants. Of course, the way they were sectioned off, you could be in non-smoking, sitting directly next to a smoking table. What a joke.

 

[MushyMushy]

It doesn't bother me. A lot of times we'll get seated a lot more quickly because we'll request "first available" seating. As a former smoker, I usually never smoked in a restaurant back then, so even when some places went all non-smoking it was okay. But I still like the choice of where to sit, if that makes sense.

We have restaurants here in our town where the restaurant is really small. Smoking is just across an aisle from non-smoking. Now come on! Either make the whole place non or make the whole place smoking. There are 2 or 3 places like that and it's silly.

 

[chisnpeke]

Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having a peeing section in a pool.

 

[Todd&Copper]

My DH and I were just commenting on Friday night that we can't wait for the smoking ban to move to all restraunts, including the bar area. I think we're only a few months away in Maryland. We were in the "non-smoking" section and both of us commented on how much our clothes smelled when we got home.

Hey, Annapolitan! Have you been to the Double T Diner? DH and I went there about a year ago, and had a laugh about their smoking section. It is completely closed off fromt he rest of the restaurant, with closed doors. We thought it looked like the ape enclosures at older zoos.

I much prefer totally non-smoking restaurants. I remember a few years ago going to a Ruby Tuesday or Bennigans and asking for non-smoking, but we were so close to the smoking section that it really didn't matter. I don't think we stayed.

 

[piglet too]

Would smokers really quit eating out if they couldn't smoke until after dessert?

Actually, in my in-laws case, yes they will stop eating out.