|
Even though they had installed machines to remove cigarette smoke from their dining room, the owners of Lee's Family Restaurant in Grand Island still received complaints that it was too smoky inside.
So on Sept. 1, 2005, the restaurant decided to go smoke free, said Carol Lee, who owns and runs the restaurant with her family, which includes smokers and non-smokers alike.
And they haven't regretted it since.
"You wouldn't believe how many customers personally came up and said, 'Thank you,'" Lee said.
While a new state law will put a smoking ban into effect in Grand Island by summer 2009 and a city ordinance potentially could do it a year sooner a number of local restaurants and businesses have already become smoke free of their own volition.
Managers at three such businesses, Texas T-Bone, Tommy's Restaurant and Lee's Family Restaurant, said some customers were disgruntled at first.
But after a while, virtually all have returned, they said.
"We've lost some customers over it, but they've come back over the years," said Misti Williams, manager of Tommy's Restaurant.
Tommy's went smoke free in 1998, she said, even though the restaurant's owner was a smoker himself.
Many of the restaurant's employees also appreciated the change, and those who smoke themselves don't complain about having to go outside, Williams said.
"I don't smoke, so I don't like having smoke blown in my face," she said.
Texas T-Bone gradually restricted smoking to its bar area before it banned the practice altogether a few years ago, manager Rey Lopez said.
"I don't think we've ever lost a customer because it's no smoking," he said.
Lee said business has improved at her restaurant since it went smoke free.
A number of businesses, particularly bars, restaurants and service stations, are concerned about the effect a smoking ban will have on their business, said Cindy Johnson, president of the Grand Island Area Chamber of Commerce.
But many have taken steps to prepare for such a ban, as it has been discussed by local and state government leaders for a number of years.
"I think that people, over the course of the last few years, have come to understand that something was going to happen sooner or later," Johnson said.
Businesses tend to be particularly anxious about Grand Island's proposed citywide smoking ban, which in addition to banning smoking from all public places and workplaces would also prohibit smoking within 10 feet of building entrances, Johnson said. For some, that added restriction would encroach on outdoor beer gardens and dining areas.
In Lincoln, where in 2005 the city council invoked a smoking ban that did not include the "10-foot rule," businesses experienced a downturn at first, said Bruce Dart, director of the Lincoln/Lancaster County Health Department. And some individual businesses continue to be affected.
But sales tax data have shown that the bar and restaurant industries have seen increased revenues ever year since then, he said.
"Overall, I think across the community, the acceptance has been at a very high level," Dart said.
While with the Lincoln ban some people chose to patronize small towns outside the city so they could smoke indoors, that won't be an option with the statewide ban, Dart said.
"The statewide ban will put everybody on a level playing field," he said.
The Nebraska Restaurant Association publicly supported the statewide smoking ban signed into law last week, which will go into effect in June 2009.
Over the last several years, a significant number of Nebraska cities have either enacted or considered enacting citywide smoking bans, said Jim Otto, who works in government relations for the restaurant association.
"It was the decision of the membership that it would be better to have a uniform policy across the state," he said.
Otto said the association understands that small-town bars and restaurants are particularly concerned about losing business because of the statewide ban.
"We're hopeful that the same thing that proved true in Lincoln will prove true across Nebraska, in that those businesses will find a new market that they didn't have before," he said.
For those restaurants and businesses worried about losing customers, the managers of Tommy's, Lee's and Texas T-Bone said they should try not to be concerned.
"They don't go to your business because you can smoke," Lopez said. "They go to your business because you have great food, great service. People just have to adapt."
|
