Restaurants, bars adjust to smoke-free environment

Just after midnight on Saturday when the new statewide smoking ban went into effect, Spunky McDoogle’s cook Colin Morse said some of the restaurant staff had a ceremonial throwing away of ashtrays.

Like other establishments in New Bern that previously allowed smoking in designated areas, the restaurant and bar on Glenburnie Road has adapted to the new state law that requires that the enclosed areas of almost all bars and restaurants be smoke-free.

Spunky’s walls are being repainted to give the now smoke-free venue a clean start, Morse said, and patrons and staff will now have to go outside to light up.

“I’m sure there’s going to be some (griping) here and there about people having to go outside,” Morse said. “Other than that, I don’t think it would affect business so much.”

Gerry Shepherd, owner of Mickey Milligans Billiards & Dance Club on Trent Road, said he sees the ban as positive change. Shepherd hopes the clean air will attract more patrons.

“People will feel better about that, and they will want to come out because the air is going to be clean,” he said. “It helps make it more of a family-oriented (establishment).”

He added that he has spent more than $10,000 on an outdoor area where people can light up if they want to. He ultimately expects to save on the investment because he won’t have to pay monthly fees to have the filters changed on Smoke Eaters that used to suck up cigarette smoke.

And while smokers will be allowed to light up at the outdoor area, they will not be allowed to smoke at Milligans’ entrance because that could bother the nonsmokers.

“One of the biggest things in nightclubs and bars is that the smoke is what’s going to stick on everything in your place,” Shepherd said. “Your customers don’t want to go home smelling like Mickey Milligans.”

He added that he doesn’t expect the ban to deter any of his customers, as even about a dozen of his regulars have decided to quit smoking.

“It can only be good for the community,” he said.

Even before the ban, some restaurant owners decided to go smoke-free. Among those are The Diamond Club on U.S. 70 and the two Middle Street establishments, Captain Ratty’s and The Chelsea Restaurant.

Shawn Hoveland, chef and owner of The Chelsea, said the restaurant went smoke-free about four years ago because its nonsmoking section was filling up faster than its smoking section.

“What we found was, even the smokers wanted to sit in the nonsmoking sections because I guess they didn’t like the smell of smoke while they eat,” he said. “We didn’t think (prohibiting smoking) was going to have any effect on our business, and we also felt that more people were interested in a smoke-free environment than a smoking environment.”

Hoveland added that personally, he might go to more restaurants and bars because of the ban.

“For me, I’ve always longed for fresh air,” he said.

Dale Overbee, owner of The Diamond Club, said his club has been smoke-free since he opened it two years ago. He even quit smoking himself at that time because he feared he’d start smoking a carton a day because of the stress of the business.

Overbee said the club does have a smoking deck outside where people can smoke and continue to socialize, which is a plus for the nonsmokers and seems to be OK by the smokers.

“Just so you have a place for (the smokers) to smoke that’s not like you’re out in the street or whatever, they seem to be OK about it,” he said.

Tom Ballance, owner of Captain Ratty’s, said that his restaurant has been smoke-free since it opened 10 years ago.

And although he chose to make the restaurant smoke-free from day one, he said he doesn’t support the statewide ban. The law applies to smoking in restaurants, bars and in enclosed areas of hotels, motels and inns where food or drink are prepared, according to the Web site smokefree.nc.gov.

“I think every restaurant should have a right to choose whether they want (to allow smoking), and people should have a right to choose where they want to go,” he said. "I disagree with what the (state) government’s done; it’s none of their business really.”

Laura Oleniacz can be reached at 252-635-5675 or at loleniacz@freedomenc.com.