I also have lived in both types of places and from personal experience believe you to be more the exception, then the rule.
I walked into an Irish bar in Dover, DE on St. Patrick's Day at happy hour and was able to get a seat at the bar. 2 years ago, when I walked into the same establishment on St. Pat's Day, I had to get there before 2pm to get a seat anywhere near the bar, let alone at the bar. 15 miles away, the bars in Maryland were SRO, and more than half the cars in the parking lots had Delaware tags.
Reality is, more people don't smoke than do anymore.
Nobody will argue with that point.
I would not be suprised that as the dust has settled that bars and restraunts are making more money now.
The dust has settled in many places and that is just not true. I have friends who are owners and others who are employees in both new York and Delaware.......they are still hurting
One friend of mine in Delaware has seen an increase in his dine in business.....but not nearly enough to make up for the losses of his happy hour business or his weekend night business. he has gone from live entertainment 3 nights a week to one night every other week......he doesn't have the crowd any longer to justify the cost of the entertainment. Where he used to have 5 staffers working on Friday and Saturday nights, he now has 2 at the most......and this is well over a year after the Delaware ban went into effect.