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Smoking bill unfair, some say
Restaurants with bars could lose business because of exception
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Published: April 5, 2009
At Big Shotz restaurant on Stratford Road, the owners have gone to great lengths to separate the bar area, where smoking is allowed, from the dining room, where it's not allowed.
They put up a glass partition between the two areas, and they installed a state-of-the-art ventilation system that sucks smoke out of the air.
"We had put quite a bit of money into alleviating the smoke problem for those who didn't want to smell it," said Betty Ashby, a co-owner of Big Shotz. "I literally never come home smelling like smoke."
But if the N.C. General Assembly passes a statewide ban on indoor smoking in most businesses, Big Shotz will have to make its entire building smoke-free.
Ashby, who doesn't smoke, is OK with that -- but only if the restrictions apply equally to all of her competitors.
Under the current version of the smoking bill, they don't.
The version passed by the N.C. House last week provides an exception for businesses that are open only to people 18 and older. Those businesses generally include nightclubs, pool halls, live music venues and nonrestaurant bars -- the very places that Big Shotz and other restaurant-bars compete with for their nighttime drinking clientele.
Ashby said that her bar customers make up more than a third of her total business -- and a substantial number of those customers are smokers.
If Big Shotz is forced to ban smoking while nearby age-restricted venues can continue to allow smoking, Ashby could lose business.
"There are some that definitely will try to find a place that will still allow them to smoke," she said.
She added that many of her customers are regulars who she thinks will stay, despite the ban. Big Shotz also has an outdoor patio where smoking could continue.
Still, she and other restaurant owners wish that the smoking bill would treat all businesses the same.
"There are so many places that are family-friendly restaurants that also do a lot of bar business," said Paul Stone, the president and CEO of the N.C. Restaurant and Lodging Association. "We think it will have a major impact on certain types of restaurants."
The original version of the smoking bill, which was sponsored by state Rep. Hugh Holliman, D-Davidson, did not have an exception for age-restricted businesses -- it would have outlawed smoking in businesses across the board.
But the bill was amended on the House floor by legislators who were uncomfortable with such a sweeping ban.
The bill will now go to the N.C. Senate, where the chamber's leader, Sen. Marc Basnight, D-Dare, strongly supports it.
It's unclear if the Senate will take up the version of the bill as passed by the House, or if the Senate will do its own tinkering and try to return it to its original form.
Holliman, who is the House majority leader, and Basnight both prefer a sweeping ban without the exception for age-restricted businesses.
■ James Romoser can be reached at 919-210-6794 or at jromoser@wsjournal.com.
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