Traditionally smoky bars like the one in the Gim Wah Restaurant in Magnolia Village and the Mecca in Lower Queen Anne have seen a steep drop-off in business since the smoking ban went into effect six months ago, staffers say.
However, in other drinking establishments where smoking wasn't such a big deal in the past, like Queen Anne's Paragon and Magnolia's Village Pub, there's been little change.
Nena Tyson, a bartender at the Gim Wah, estimates business has dropped 30 to 35 percent since the ban went into effect in December. And that includes patronage in the restaurant section, where smoking had already been banned for some time, she said.
"It's ugly," Tyson lamented. Smoking regulars still come in, but they leave after having only a couple of drinks, she said. "They used to stay here for hours."
The change has left Tyson to watch TV in an empty bar for sometimes hours at a time, she said. Tyson doesn't think the smoking ban is fair. "People should have the chance to not be bulldozed into 'this is what you've got to do.'"
It could be worse. Over at the Mecca, which has seen a similar decline in business, manager Karon Hanke says it's been terrible. "I had to give wage cuts. I took one myself, $300 a month," she grimaced. "And [the employees are] being pretty good about it."
Judging from some pained expressions when the subject came up, that's not necessarily true for all staff members at the Mecca. But Hanke insisted she had no choice. "We have not (made) a decent amount of money since December (when the ban went into effect)."
And it's not just drink sales. The Mecca is open 24 hours on Friday and Saturday, but it may no longer be feasible to open the place at 6 a.m. on weekdays. "We used to have people in here at 6 (a.m.) smoking and drinking coffee," she said. "Our coffee sales have gone way done, around 40 percent."
Patty Hutchison, the weekend bartender at the Highliner Tavern in Fishermen's Terminal, said business has likely taken a 30 percent nosedive since the smoking ban went into effect.
The place used to stay open on weekends fairly late into the night, she said. "Now it's 10, 8, 9 o'clock unless we have a band."
The ban was softened somewhat at the Highliner because a tent was set up outside for smokers, but that amenity came to an abrupt end on Monday this week.
That's because the Port of Seattle sent a letter to the tavern last week telling them to take the tent down immediately, Hutchison said. "It's an eyesore; that's what it says," she said of the letter.
Ted Buttle, a regular at the Highliner for 25 years, is especially incensed about losing the tent, which he bought and put up about a week after the smoking ban went into effect.
Buttle said sometimes he even put a TV in the tent so tavern patrons could smoke and drink while they watched sports. "It kept several people here who wouldn't have been here if it didn't happen," he said of the tent.
Still, he conceded that the tent didn't completely solve the problem of lost business. "Everybody noticed a drop-off," he said last Sunday as he puffed away in a lounge chair outside near the tent. "You can't smoke, you go home," he said of the ban in general.
One of the arguments in favor of the ban was that non-smokers would be able to go to bars and taverns they avoided in the past because of the tobacco smoke.
That doesn't seem to have happened, according to several sources interviewed for this story. Hanke at the Mecca thinks she knows why. "The non-smokers already found the non-smoking bars where they want to go."
That would seem to be the case at the Hilltop Alehouse on Upper Queen Anne Hill. That's a neighborhood tavern where smoking has never been allowed, and where regulars haven't deserted the place in favor of other watering holes, according to bartender Lisa Rulland.
"We haven't noticed any drop-off at all," she said. "People have pretty much decided where they go." But Rulland also said the Hilltop doesn't have much of a social bar scene, adding that customers looking for that kind of action simply go a few doors down the street to the Paragon.
The Paragon didn't allow smoking in the place until after 10 p.m. even before the ban went into effect, and not much has changed, according to bartender Mike Lindeman. "There's been no drop in business, but perhaps an increase," he said. "For the most part, no one cares."
That doesn't include Steve Drake, a Paragon regular and a smoker. "The bottom line is, it (the ban) doesn't go through the natural process of America and democracy," he railed. Drake also complained that the ban is simply an attempt to legislate morality, something he strongly objects to.
"I would stay longer (if there wasn't a ban)," he said. But Lindeman razzed him on that point, saying Drake never stays past 10 p.m. in any case.
Shawna Mimna, a bartender at the Boxcar Alehouse in Magnolia, hasn't seen any drop in business since the ban went into effect. "I haven't noticed much of a difference," she said.
But Boxcar regular Scott Larkin said he's given up smoking since the ban. "I didn't give up because of the ban, but it made it easier," he said. "I wanted to give up anyway."
Tom Griffith, a part owner at T.S. McHugh's, 10 Mercer Street and Floyd's Place in Lower Queen Anne, said he is glad the ban went into effect. "To be honest with you, I was happy for my employees' sake," he said.
"I don't think we seen much drop (in business)," said Griffith, adding that, if anything, his food business is up a bit. "But I don't think we were considered smoky places, [as were] the Mecca or the Gim Wah."
Allison Hasenakamp, a bartender at the Village Pub in Magnolia Village, said business wasn't hurt because of the smoking ban. "The smoking thing really hasn't affected us as much as other places around here," she said.
In fact, Hasenkamp added, a couple of smoking regulars who disappeared for a couple of months are coming back to the Village Pub two or three times a week now.
And in another indication that business in the bar hasn't been damaged by the smoking ban, plans are in the works to move into a new location across the street, she said. It will be twice the size of the present place, too, Hasenkamp added.
Staff reporter Russ Zabel can be reached at rzabel@nwlink.com or 461-1309.[[In-content Ad]]
