Smoking ban goes into effect without a hitch

Kayla Gordon plays multiple rolls during her day-shift at the Ground Pati in Thibodaux, making drinks behind the bar, dashing from the kitchen to the floor delivering hot plates to lunchtime guests.

Running multiple posts is typical in the restaurant personnel but with the recent ban on smoking in the state of Louisiana, many servers, bartenders and wait-staff around the Tri-parishes can do it in a haze-free environment.

“No one has come in asking for a smoking table. I think everyone knows and I don’t expect it to be a problem,” said Gordon.

The Ground Pati typically sees the majority of its smoking guests during the day. Only two days into the new regulation’s enactment, Gordon said there had not been any issues with the “no smoking” change and she did not expect to hear any complaints during the evening bar scene.

“I think more people are happy about it [the ban] than mad about it,” she said.

Down Canal Street at the Western Sizzlin Restaurant, manager Scott Boudreaux reported similar observations n very few complaints, very few missing customers.

The front room of the steak house dons large, expansive windows allowing sunlight to pour in and is a good spot for customers to watch the world go by. This area was once the designated smoking section but is now available for non-smokers, and Boudreaux said the sunlit room has been a new and popular spot for guests to sit.

“We haven’t heard one complaint or seen a decline in business. This room fills quick during the day now, when it usually didn’t before,” he said.

Boudreaux has witnessed one, perhaps intended, effect that surprised him.

“Many of our employees are wanting to quit smoking with the ban. With the colder temperatures and having to go outside in the back to smoke, many of them don’t want to have to deal with it. So they are using the opportunity to make an effort to quit,” he said.

Nearby, at Chili’s Grill & Bar, the story was much the same.

“I don’t think that the ban is going to effect our customers,” said Chris Robinson, Chili’s manager.

Robinson said the corporation tried to prepare Louisiana customers up to the ban’s Jan. 1 start date, hoping that an advanced warning would reduce some animosity or hard feelings customers may have had walking up and discovering the deleted designated smoking sections.

“I think that way people understand that it’s really not our choice, but a law that we have to abide by like all restaurants in the state,” he said.

Like Western Sizzlin and the Ground Pati, Chili’s in Thibodaux received no negative feedback; Robinson said many customers are happy to be eating in a smoke-free environment.

Despite popular belief about the prevalence of smoking, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Office on Smoking and Health reports a large majority of adults in Louisiana opt not to. In fact, only 22.6 percent responded as smokers in 2005 during a CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System n 24.6 percent of smokers were male smokers and 20.6 percent were female.

In January of 2000, the Department of Health and Human Services launched Healthy People 2010 n a program designed to reduce the average amount of adult smokers in the United States to 12 percent.

According to CDC research, states like Louisiana, choosing to implement smoking restrictions in the workplace and other public venues, help reduce the national average by reducing the places people are exposed to smokers’ habits and second-hand smoke.

States enforcing restrictive laws see lowered percentages of adults who smoke, CDC statistics indicate.

“Things have changed. There are more people who come to the bar at night and don’t smoke, and because of that I think people who do are more willing to step outside (to smoke),” said Gordon.

As of press time the Louisiana Restaurant Association had received no feedback from restaurateurs affected around the state.

“It has been too soon to tell how the law is effecting business,” said Cade Farmer, communication specialist for the LRA. “We are getting calls regarding confusion with the law itself. The language of the law was unclear as to who qualified as a restaurant.”

Farmer said bars and casinos are exempt from the smoking ban, but some business owners have been confused about bars located inside restaurants and whether they qualify. Farmer said they do.

“Whether the smoking ban falls on a business depends on the type of liquor license,” said Farmer. General Class A licenses are exempt from the ban while Class A-R falls within the language.

Local law enforcement authorities n police, sheriff’s deputies and state troopers n will be enforcing the statewide ban. First-time offenders will be issued a $25 fine, and the second offense warrants a $50 fine.

A $100 fine is given for every offense after that. Steeper fines for business owners are to ensure laws are followed; restaurateurs not following the law will be handed a $100 fine, $ 250 for the second offense and $500 for every additional violation.

Andrea Carlson can be reached at andrea@tri-parishtimes.com.

Staff photo by Andrea Carlson * Tri-Parish Times * Dinners at the Ground Pati in Thibodaux enjoy lunching in a smoke-free environment. Lafourche Parish restaurants reported few complaints about the new state ban on public smoking. A similar law went into effect in Terrebonne Parish in 2006.