Smoking away, despite the ban

St. Petersburg Times ^ | July 5, 2004 | BRADY DENNIS,

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Fines? They pay them. Investigators? They avoid them. These restaurants proudly say, "Light up."

WILDWOOD - A Friday evening storm rolls through rural Sumter County, spitting rain at the cows that graze beside the local high school.

The faithful brave the weather and pull into the parking lot of a red concrete block building on the outskirts of Wildwood, a once-thriving railroad town off U.S. 301.

Outside, smoke from the pits at Buddy's Bar-B-Que drifts through the air, smelling of pecan and blackjack oak. But inside, the smoke smells more like Marlboros and menthols.

A sign in the window reads, "Smoking permitted," and the plastic jug by the cash register isn't for tips. Its message: "Donations for smoking fine."

But Buddy's crown jewel - the fixture that has won it fame and irked state and local officials - is the 10-foot-long, 5-foot-tall fiberglass pig attached to the roof. It used to face U.S. 301, snout first.

In a bold, if slightly bizarre, act of civil disobedience, the restaurant's owners turned it around last year so that the rump faces the road. They added an extra touch - a plastic pipe painted to look like a cigarette protruding from its rear end.

The pipe blows smoke. Hence the slogan on the restaurant's $10 T-shirts: "Home of the Smokin' Pig."

Florida's smoking ban, which took effect last July 1, turned 1 year old on Thursday.

From the outskirts of Wildwood, to the shores of New Port Richey, to the Tamiami Trail, to the sprawl of Miami, not everyone celebrated the occasion.

* * *

Those who have chosen to buck the ban - and, in truth, there aren't very many - have acted at times sly, at times openly defiant. But they almost always have been entertaining.

A state database released Tuesday shows that the Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco logged 1,239 complaints about smoking ban violations during the past year, with Pinellas County leading the pack.

The state Division of Hotels and Restaurants, which oversees establishments without liquor licenses, has received 520 complaints. The state Department of Health has investigated complaints as well, though the exact number is unclear.

According to the reports, which contain comments from investigators about their visits to businesses, one restaurant owner boasted that he "has deep pockets" and challenged the state to "bring it on."

Another owner barked that state investigators don't work past 8 p.m., so the smoking would continue when they left. Still others said that they simply "didn't care" about the ban or that they were "ignoring it."

Some businesses tried creative ways to skirt the provision that bans smoking if food sales generate more than 10 percent of a business' revenue.

According to the reports, one restaurant rang up all purchases, including food, as "alcoholic beverages." Another had customers pay for drinks at the cash register but pay the cook in the kitchen for food.

Some restaurants tried giving away free food. Others let patrons bring their own. One even let customers order food from elsewhere and have it delivered.

Even so, state officials say the ban, passed in 2002 with overwhelming voter support, has been implemented with little protest. Almost every business that faced a warning complied in the end.

"We feel enforcement has gone really well," said Kristen Ploska, spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. "Especially at the beginning, it was more about educating about the law. The vast majority of people have come into compliance."

Only when someone complains do investigators visit a business. If people are smoking, the owners are issued a notice and given 30 days to comply.

If the smoking continues, the state can open an administrative case and eventually start fining the business until it complies.

Records show the state has opened only about 35 such cases, many of which resulted in fines of $250 to $750.

* * *

The first case the state filed came in September against Old Cutler Oyster Co. Raw Bar & Grill, a Miami restaurant that doubles as a late-night club.

Owner Mike Pace said more than half his annual multimillion-dollar business comes from food sales, but the other half relies on the smokers who pack the club at night.

He hired a lawyer and vowed to fight the ban "all the way."

If he didn't allow smoking, he said, "I'd have to change my entire operation. I can't operate a nightclub that doesn't smoke when there are three within a 10-minute drive of me that do smoke."

Pace sees his battle as "a fight for my personal rights." He also doesn't put much stock in studies, including one released recently by the University of Florida, that claim the smoking ban hasn't hurt businesses.

He said he knows business owners who have had to close and others who have struggled.

"You'll hear proponents of this law say it's worked out great. That's not true," said Pace, a smoker. "I happen to know at least five operations in my area that have dropped anywhere from 40 to 50 percent.

"They're forced to smoke illegally just to stay in business. They've had to take their chances. It's going on all around the state."

It's certainly going on inside Bamz Deli & Grill, perched on the Tamiami Trail in Naples. Owner Mike St. Onge knows when to expect investigators and makes sure to curtail smoking until they have come and gone.

When the ban took effect, he tried claiming that his restaurant was a private club called the "Smoke'em If You Got 'Em Club." That didn't work.

So now he plays hide-and-seek with inspectors. And like most rabble-rousers who have challenged the ban, he maintains a hearty contempt for the meddlesome ways of government.

"I don't think the government should be in a business that I built," said St. Onge, who's fond of quoting New Hampshire's motto, "Live Free or Die."

"I don't advocate smoking. But I just think it is stripping away at a freedom."

That said, St. Onge admits the ban has helped his business - mainly because he has ignored it. Customers know where to come if they want to light up. His sales are up 40 percent over last year.

Closer to home, the Crab Trap restaurant in New Port Richey has battled Florida's ban almost from the beginning. Owner Deborah Iannuzzi said she tried complying with the law last year, but her sales took a dive.

So after a few weeks, she began allowing smoking again, proudly. She doesn't plan to stop any time soon.

"I'm not condoning smoking. I'm condoning people's rights," Iannuzzi said. "Isn't that what the United States is? Isn't freedom of choice what America is all about? What's next, you can't be blond on Mondays?"

* * *

A twirl around the Internet turns up a thriving underworld of smokers willing to fight the system.

The Web brims with petitions to repeal smoking bans and statistics about how much smokers contribute to the economy.

There are lists of smoker-friendly businesses and contact numbers for smoker-friendly lawyers. Chat rooms where smokers can vent together. Smokers' newsletters. How-to pages dedicated to protesting smoking bans and boycotting companies that support antismoking legislation.

Most prosmoking Web sites sound the war drum, some likening the bans to Nazi tactics.

"We are fighting an enemy which has no morality, and no sense of honour and justice," states one. And another: "This is not a fight for the timid. It takes dedication, determination, perseverance, and faith."

Florida is just one battleground in this small but passionate war.

Scores of clubs exist around the country - Florida Smokers' Rights, Pennsylvania Smokers Action Network, Massachusetts Citizens For Freedom, National Organization of Smokers, Americans for Individual Rights, United Pro Choice Smokers' Rights, New York City Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment (CLASH).

The list goes on and on. And on.

The smokers might be fighting a losing battle. The American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation in Berkeley, Calif., reports that 1,703 communities nationwide have instituted some type of smoking restriction, and that nine states have passed smoking bans since 1994, with Idaho the most recent.

Restrictions around the country are likely to continue growing. Then again, so is the angst of smokers, who feel more and more like second-class citizens.

So the war smolders on.

* * *

It doesn't feel much like war inside Buddy's Bar-B-Que on this Friday night.

Owner Barbara Clark sits at a table by the cash register, puffing on a cigarette and sipping a Michelob Light.

Marvlyn "Mo" Young and the other waiters serve plates piled high with barbecue and chicken, then slide over to the windowsill ashtray to steal a puff. Everybody who works at Buddy's smokes.

"If we were selling somebody dope in here or passing around crack, it'd be different," Young says. She gestures to a corner television, which is showing images from Iraq. "How many Americans did we lose last week? We got enough to worry about (other) than a damn cigarette."

At the corner table, Michael and Connie Smallwood of Bushnell sip wine with their barbecue and light up after-dinner cigarettes.

"It's good to see somebody fight," Connie says. "As adults, you should be able to choose. Everybody has rights."

In the walled-off, ventilated nonsmoking room, Joel Cravey and Andy Burleson scarf down dinner after a long day of work. Cravey works in carpentry; Burleson is a heating and air conditioning contractor.

"Nobody minds this," Cravey says. "If it bothered anybody, why's this place packed all the time?"

The rain outside has stopped. The sun is setting over the railroad tracks and the pastures beyond. Even on a slow night like this, the customers keep trickling through the door.

Out in the barbecue pit, Buddy Clark throws another log on the fire, and the rooftop pig keeps smoking.

- Brady Dennis can be reached at 813 226-3386 or dennis@sptimes.com

[Watery Tart]

"Nobody minds this," Cravey says. "If it bothered anybody, why's this place packed all the time?"

Agreed! And this is from an apparent nonsmoker.

I've always said that if the Gov't is gonna save me, businesses should only be required to post whether they're smoking or nonsmoking. Let me decide where I want to eat and work.

[The Duke]

Last week I found myself almost wishing that I was a smoker, so that the supposedly world-class beaches I was walking at Sanibel and Captiva Islands seemed less like ash trays.

[Watery Tart]

People who use beaches for ashtrays are pigs.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

People spit too but then there are slobs everywhere. When I smoked (quit 15 years ago) I detested the habit some people had of tossing out their butts - something I didn't and I am sure most people don't do.

[Tall_Texan]

Here in Austin, they changed the smoking laws after business owners complained about the total ban the antis wanted. For an annual city license fee ($300 IIRC), an establishment could continue to offer smoking sections without punishment. I guess "health" wasn't nearly as important to the Council as getting a cut of the take.

One of my favorite places, a Mexican restaurant, had a bar-like smoking section with a big screen tv and more of a sports bar type atmosphere while the non-smoking sections had no tv or other entertainment except piped-in music.

The restaurant chose not to pay for the license so, for the first time, I sat in the bar area in front of the tv and watched baseball (in the past, the smoke would have made me leave). There were not many patrons in the area, even though they had kept it well-ventilated and it did not smell of stale smoke (they did, however, repaint the area this week... hmmm). So I got a chance to ask the waitresses what they thought of the new ban and the owner's decision to not pay for the license.

One said her boyfriend smokes so it doesn't bother her except for the way it made her hair and clothes smell after working there. But she said all the waitresses were sad to see the smokers leave.

One explained her observation (after a little prodding) that the smokers were far less concerned with their own health so they freely ordered more nachos, more desserts and more booze than the non-smoking tables did. So, therefore, they had larger tabs and the waitresses made more off the tips.

A little food for thought.

I must admit that the thought of nagging nurses and micromanaging heart specialists scare me away from ordering that little extra most of the time. I guess the smokers don't get those lectures because the doctors are too busy nagging them about their smoking to fuss at them about what they eat.

[metesky]

"I'm not condoning smoking. I'm condoning people's rights," Iannuzzi said. "Isn't that what the United States is? Isn't freedom of choice what America is all about? What's next, you can't be blond on Mondays?"

Well, isn't it?

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I guess the smokers don't get those lectures because the doctors are too busy nagging them about their smoking to fuss at them about what they eat.

Then again, when you stop smoking you substitute with food. A lot of people don't quit because they fear putting on weight.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Yes! And we're a country of laws - some good, some not so good. We need to be more discriminating.

[speak]

Smoking equals bad eating habits? Maybe for those same people that use sidewalks and beaches for ashtrays.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

***But Buddy's crown jewel - the fixture that has won it fame and irked state and local officials - is the 10-foot-long, 5-foot-tall fiberglass pig attached to the roof. It used to face U.S. 301, snout first.

In a bold, if slightly bizarre, act of civil disobedience, the restaurant's owners turned it around last year so that the rump faces the road. They added an extra touch - a plastic pipe painted to look like a cigarette protruding from its rear end.

The pipe blows smoke. Hence the slogan on the restaurant's $10 T-shirts: "Home of the Smokin' Pig." ***

____________________________________________________

This kind of in-your-face has to make us all proud to be Americans!

[SheLion]

Well, isn't it?

It really is all about rights and freedom of choice, since cigarettes are a legal commodity.

I have never seen the likes of being able to buy a legal commodity, then being treated like a criminal for using it!

Here is how California is coping with the ban..........heh!

California Smokers Use Prohibition Tactics to Get Around Ban

SAN FRANCISCO — Back when liquor was outlawed during this country's Prohibition movement, Americans found clever ways to dodge police and have a drink in secrecy and safety.

[SheLion]

But Buddy's crown jewel - the fixture that has won it fame and irked state and local officials - is the 10-foot-long, 5-foot-tall fiberglass pig attached to the roof. It used to face U.S. 301, snout first.

LOL

Buddy's!

[BJungNan]

Last week I found myself almost wishing that I was a smoker, so that the supposedly world-class beaches I was walking at Sanibel and Captiva Islands seemed less like ash trays.

Last week I found myself almost wishing I drove a car instead of riding a bicycle, so that the supposedly world-class neighborhood at Sanibel and Captiva Islands seemed less like a gas chamber.

It all depends what butt you are looking at. Your's stinks as much as the next guys except you are apparently oblivious to your own stench.

[SheLion]

and

Smokers United

Roll Your Own Tobacco Store

[SheLion]

People who use beaches for ashtrays are pigs.

Don't worry.........the government has put a stop to smokers going to beaches. You can be "HAPPY" now...........

[libertylover]

Suggestion: Close the business and open a club. The club would have dues of one penny for a lifetime membership. Smoking allowed.

[LisaMalia]

Columbus, Ohio just went non-smoking, it will go into effect in something like 30 days or so. I went out to dinner in C-Bus with some of my family last week.

I was sitting in a non smoking section, out of respect to the rest of my family members who do not smoke. (See, we smokers are not all a bunch of rude, obnoxious louts as some in here say...LOL) Anyway, I went to the bar to smoke, and stuck up a conversation with one of the servers. She said that she thinks most restaurant-bar business in the city will drop dramatically. She also said that instead of going out on the weekends, she will stay home.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I wonder if the government should ban people who use public swimming areas as their toilet. I imagine there are more of them at the beach than there are smokers.

[Watery Tart]

I'm a smoker who has NEVER left a butt laying out in public. If you don't have an ashtray/container, you field-strip it and put it in your pocket. ;o)

---

This was taught to me by Mr. Tart, who learned it in Viet Nam. Didn't I tell you he was in Viet Nam? He served a full tour, so he didn't get to see John Kerry-Heinz, who went home early with a hernia. Apparently he had too many medals.... ;o)