Change is in the air as local bars try to comply with the state's smoking ban by adding outside patios or reducing their food offerings.
By GRAHAM BRINK
Published August 15, 2003
[Times photos: Thomas M. Goethe]
Larry Drew, left, and his son Clark Drew enjoy their cigars on the patio of the Dubliner Irish Pub. The pub doesn't allow smoking inside, but you can smoke outside on the deck, a common change as local bars try to comply with the state's smoking ban.
Clark Drew lights up a cigar on the patio of the Dubliner Irish Pub. The state's smoking ban has turned patios into smoking areas.
TAMPA - The newly enacted indoor smoking ban has added another wrinkle to the robust competition in South Tampa's bar scene.
Some owners are reveling in the clean air, enjoying the burgeoning, health-conscious crowds. Others aren't breathing so easy, complaining of lost customers and diminishing bottom lines.
The attempted remedies have been as diverse as the number of draft beers.
Call the carpenters and build a new deck, like Mac's Sports Pub. Cut the food menu to slip under the food-to-liquor ratio, like Whiskey Park SoHo. Grin and bear it, like the owner of Ceviche Tapas Bar & Restaurant. Or, like Four Green Fields, do nothing but apply for an exemption.
For Richard Campion, majority owner of the Dubliner Irish Pub on Azeele Street, the remedy is all about offering something for everyone. In other words, get yourself a big deck with lots of covered seating.
"As a bar owner I support the smoking ban," Campion said. "We have to be able to adapt and go with the times."
Campion thought the ban was inevitable even as he was designing the bar last year. That gave him ideas as to how to make the layout friendly to all kinds of patrons. He installed a large deck that captures a natural breeze between buildings and recently added a tiki bar.
The bar's live music performers also often set up outside. With the doors wide open, the tunes easily float inside to the customers playing pool or sitting at the main bar.
"The key is to make sure the smoking clientele doesn't feel segregated in a corner," said Campion, who might establish a cigar club on one of the nights. "I think we have accomplished that."
Last year, Floridians overwhelmingly passed a constitutional amendment banning smoking in bars and restaurants, among other places. After legislators hammered out the details, the ban took effect July 1.
With some exceptions, the law bans indoor smoking at establishments that derive more than 10 percent of their yearly sales from food. Bars that repeatedly break the law can face fines up to $2,000 per incident. Smokers who don't stop puffing can be fined up to $500.
Revelers interviewed recently at MacDinton's on Howard Avenue had the typically mixed reaction to the ban. Many loved the fresh air and the lower dry cleaning bills from not having to "de-smoke" their clothes.
Representing the other side was the burly man drinking a Guinness who overheard a reporter asking questions and yelled, "The ban is stupid," followed by a more detailed assessment that included a bunch of words not suitable for a family newspaper.
The manager of MacDinton's, Barry O'Connor, had a more upbeat take. Sure, people complained the first few days, but now most of his customers are used to it.
"I think the ban has helped us. People driving by see all kinds of people out on our patio," he said during a phone interview. "It looks busy and people equate busy with popular, the place to be."
O'Connor plans to install more awnings outside to protect his smoking customers from the elements. He already has more temporary fans to keep the masses from overheating. Also, with no smoke billowing inside, he doesn't have to use as much air conditioning.
"The ban really is not all bad," he said.
Bars that don't sell food or have food sales of 10 percent or less of their annual gross revenues may apply for an exemption as a "standalone bar" or "standalone bar with food."
To allow customers to smoke, every standalone bar must file an affidavit with the state every year. Every three years, they must submit accounting records reviewed by a certified public accountant.
Whiskey Park SoHo on Howard Avenue slashed its menu to get in under the 10 percent rule. Patrons can smoke away, but they have to do it while eating salads and sandwiches, instead of filet mignon and ahi tuna.
At Four Green Fields on Platt Street, it's business as usual, smoking inside and out. The bar serves enough beer and liquor that, despite a full menu of Irish fare, the food sales add up to 10 percent or less of the gross revenues, the owner says.
At The Rack west on Platt, co-owner Tom Golden and his business partner decided smoking had to go. They didn't want to cut their hours or extensive menu, which includes sushi, to get in under the 10 percent level. In the first month, Golden said he's seen a "good jump" in business. He suspects it's from people who wouldn't regularly go out to a bar. Customers also appear to be staying longer, he said.
"We are a restaurant and a bar, and we want to keep it that way," Golden said.
Longtime South Tampa restaurateur Gordon Davis hasn't had it quite as good. Davis said his late-night business at Ceviche Tapas Bar & Restaurant has fallen 30 percent since the smoking ban took effect. Ceviche has long been a hot spot among after-midnight diners who enjoy marinated mushrooms, steamed mussels and other morsels over a glass of sangria and a smoke.
While the evening crowd is still quite strong, Davis says the decision to allow smoking should be left to individual owners. A few years ago, he installed $20,000 worth of filtering equipment, which kept the smoke level to a minimum. Ceviche has no room for an outdoor patio.
"If my business suffers because I allow smoking, shouldn't that be up to me?" Davis said.
At his other restaurant, St. Bart's Island House just up the street from Ceviche, Davis has never allowed smoking in the dining room. It was the same when he ran Le Bordeaux, St. Bart's predecessor.
In opening St. Bart's he added a rum bar in an adjacent building with its own air conditioning. The rum bar falls under the 10 percent rule, so Davis allows smoking. The rum bar opened four months ago, too short a time to evaluate whether it will attract patrons who cannot smoke at other places, Davis said.
"So far, a lot of people really like the idea," he said. "We all have to adapt, even if we feel a bit stepped on by the new laws."
