BY GLORIA STRAVELLI
Staff Writer
JEFF GRANIT staff Lighting up at restaurants and bars could soon be a thing of the past if two bills banning smoking in food and drink establishments become law. Will it drive customers away? Wreak havoc with the bottom line? Local restaurant and bar owners say they can’t tell the future, but they are monitoring a bill making its way through the state Legislature that would ban smoking in their food and drink establishments.
A bill banning smoking indoors in public places and workplaces has been reported out of the Senate Health and Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee and is before the full Senate for a vote.
An identical bill is expected to make its way through the Assembly. When the measures have cleared both houses, the ban would be signed into law and take effect 90 days after enacted.
The New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act would add New Jersey to the list of 11 states that have enacted legislation designed to protect nonsmokers against the hazards of second-hand smoke in enclosed, indoor spaces where they work, eat and recreate.
The legislation takes broad aim, defining “enclosed indoor public place” as inclusive of any restaurant, bar where food is served, commercial office building, sports facility, racetrack, theater, library, museum, gallery, garage, modes of transportation and waiting areas, platform and terminal, shopping mall, hotel, motel and school building, where smoking is prohibited indoors or out.
Before the Senate version, S1926, moved out of committee last week, exclusions for casinos were jettisoned, according to Deborah Dowdell, president of the Trenton-based New Jersey Restaurant Association (NJRA).
While lobbying efforts were successful in paring the list of exclusions, cigar bars and lounges remain exempt, Dowdell said.
What would the cost be to businesses of the smoking ban? Huge, Dowdell said.
“Start by looking at the food and beverage universe,” she said. “In New Jersey, there are 22,000 eating and drinking establishments from local pizzerias to luncheonettes, diners, catering facilities, fast food, restaurants, fine dining, to taverns and pubs.
“If you analyze the economic impact, we need to consider that restaurants are the largest private sector employer in the state. They generate $9 billion in sales annually and employ 220,000 people. It’s a big industry and merits consideration,” she said.
“We are probably well along the way in regulating our own business,” said Ray Cosgrove, proprietor of Bahr’s Landing in Atlantic Highlands and NJRA chairman. “We didn’t see that it was necessary for the Legislature to come in and add more rules for us. But that being the case that they deem it to be necessary, we just want it to be fair for everyone.”
Under the bill, penalties for smokers who violate the ban or owners who fail to enforce it include a fine of $250 for first offense, $500 for second offense and $1,000 for each subsequent offense.
Predictably, local restaurateurs and pub owners are split on the effect of the smoking ban on their businesses.
“Our entire dining room is nonsmoking; we opened that way,” said Steve Bidgood, owner of Salt Creek Grill in Rumson. Typically, smoking is permitted at the bar area. Now, smokers will have to go outside where ashtrays (and a fireplace) will be placed and cleaned daily, he said.
“I don’t think it will affect my business,” said Bidgood. “I think that more and more people are not smoking, it’s a trend throughout the country.”
Don’t tell Eugene Devlin that the smoking ban enacted in New York hasn’t had a negative impact on places of public accommodation there.
“I have two restaurants in New York City and it killed me,” said the co-owner of Red Bank’s Dublin House, which currently allows smoking throughout all three floors.
“I think it’s disgusting, but it will pass. My only thing is everybody should be allowed to have a yes or no vote. They don’t even talk to the persons that are paying the taxes to the state. We pay sales tax to the state, and corporate tax, and it’s absolutely wrong that they don’t even come and consult with us. There’s a way to do things and a way not.”
Devlin is bracing for the ban and making contingency plans.
“I have two outdoors areas, so it doesn’t matter to me. I will make a smoking area outside and front and back,” he said.
“My clientele are smokers. However, I’ve prepared them for it. I told them I’m sure the ban will pass,” said Ron Heinzman, proprietor of Ron’s West End Pub in Long Branch.
A cigar smoker, Heinzman said he supports the ban nonetheless and will observe it.
“They’re not telling you not to smoke. They’re telling you not to smoke in the bar,” he noted. “I’ve questioned a lot of my patrons, and they say they don’t have any objections to walking outside. They can still purchase cigarettes in the bar room; they just can’t smoke them inside.”
At McLoone’s in Sea Bright, general manager Tim McMahon said the ban is not expected to have a great impact.
“We’ve been considering a change ourselves, and we’re contemplating being smoke-free in the new Long Branch restaurant,” he said. “People will get used to it. It’s a numbers game really; there are far more nonsmokers than smokers, especially at a restaurant like ours.”
At the Dublin House, St. Patrick’s Day reveler and nonsmoker Peter Santana, of Hazlet, said that cigarette smoke in bars “would infringe on the freedom of Americans who smoke.”
“There are certain inalienable rights that we must stick up for,” Santana said.
One of his companions, Perpetua Kmieciak, of Farmingdale, who is a smoker, thinks that if nonsmokers are offended by smoke in public places, they should just stay out of them.
“In my thinking, when you come hanging out in a bar, you should be allowed to smoke,” Kmieciak said.
Mary Ann St. Peter, of Holmdel, said she is weary of government regulation in what she feels is a personal matter.
“I saw a bumper sticker the other day that said, ‘At least I can still smoke in my car,’ ” St. Peter said.
“I think you should have [smoking and nonsmoking] sections,” she said. “That’s where it should end.”
— Sue Morgan contributed to this story