Clearing The Smoke

[January 7th, 2009]

If you’re reading this in a bar, take a deep breath…hold it…exhale. How do you feel?

If you answered, “Well enough to run a marathon,” you can thank Oregon’s Legislature, which channeled its inner vice squad in 2007 and passed a ban on smoking in bars with an exemption for cigar bars.

The new law went into effect Jan. 1, making Oregon the 23rd state to enact a similar statewide ban. So, when you breathe in deeply at your favorite haunt while drinking your fifth whiskey with a beer back, rest assured your nose and lungs won’t be filled with the remnants of another bar patron’s slow death.

Here’s a sampling of what bartenders and drinkers told us when we went to 20 bars Jan. 3 and 4 to get their insta-reactions to the smoking ban. Based on their answers, we also predict what the ban will mean in the long term:

Tom’s Sports Bar and Restaurant
3871 SE Division St.

John Noreault, who’s been serving drinks at Tom’s for almost three years, is unhappy about the new law. He’s worried people will get into fights as they go outside to smoke and find themselves talking to people they’d normally avoid.

PREDICTION: More anonymous fights.

The Egyptian Club
3701 SE Division St.

Jean Upton, 42, has been coming in to this lesbian bar at least once a week for the past six years. She’s a smoker and she’s pissed about the ban. She says she will probably come to the club less often and she’ll leave earlier.

PREDICTION: Less action for Jean.w

21st Avenue Bar Grill
721 NW 21st Ave.

“Since all bars aren’t allowed to have smoke, it evens the playing field,” says Scott Young, who’s been a bartender here for five years. Although it’s too early to know how the smoking ban will affect business, Young says, one thing is certain: “Smokers are upset.”

PREDICTION: Smokers will now go wherever the drinks are cheapest because there’s no need to be loyal to a pricier bar that was friendlier to puffers before Jan. 1, Young says.

Slabtown
1033 NW 16th Ave.

“I’m pleased,” bartender Ben Greene says of the ban. “It’s a real joy not to have to put those damn ashtrays out and clean ’em up.” He thinks it makes more sense to allow a closed-off smoking area within the bar.

PREDICTION: Could be a catalyst for smokers to quit, Greene says.

Cheers Northwest
1502 NW 19th Ave.

Patron Ken Lehrbach, a nonsmoker, thinks the smoking ban is “lame.” “People who get into environmental cleanup know what they’re getting into,” Lehrbach says. “Bartenders do, too. It’s a choice.” Bartender Ruth Wegner disagreed. “I don’t reek like an ashtray,” she says, “and my eyes don’t hurt.”

PREDICTION: A dramatic increase in outdoor urination, Lehrbach predicts, because drinking smokers will go outside to smoke. “When you put drunk people outside,” he says, “that’s what happens.” Wegner thinks people will learn to love the ban.

Joe’s Cellar
1332 NW 21st Ave.

Yvonne, a nonsmoking patron who wouldn’t give her last name, thinks the Legislature could have changed the law to make establishments that wanted to keep smoking pay a monthly tax. Bars could have passed the tax on to customers by charging them an extra dollar an evening to enjoy a cig. “It’s about choices,” she says, “not dictating.”

PREDICTION: Bartender Sara Blanke, who wears a nicotine patch, says the ban will be an economic wash. More nonsmokers may come in, but the bar may lose some regulars who came for the smoky atmosphere.

Last Cigarette by Joshua Bolkan.