Wednesday, Feb. 03, 2010

New customers come in as smokers take it outside

Month-old smoking ban opens doors to new clientele

Something's different about Abbey Road.

There's Katie Ashby, for one. On a recent Monday evening at the West Chatham Street haunt, the 27-year-old Cary resident sat solo at a barside table, slouched over her laptop.

"I've come here for burgers before with friends and family," she said. "But this is my first time coming by myself to get a beer and get some reading done."

The place also smells a whole lot cleaner.

Beatles memorabilia is still plastered on the walls and juicy burgers still quench hunger for the masses, but the sight of a young female working on her laptop at the long-established smokers' retreat - now, sans smokers - gives pause.

One month after a statewide smoking ban, some area restaurant and bar owners have been pleasantly surprised to see new faces at their establishments, slowly redefining the cultural makeup of venerable smoking institutions to include families and individuals that don't like to light up - and perhaps a first sign that this no smoking business might just be good business.

"Some days are really good, some days are really bad, so there's just not any consistency," said Gary Holt, Abbey Road's owner. "But there are some new folks venturing out to the bar side of the restaurant, so I think that's good."

Changing clientele at Woody's Sports Tavern in Cary was similarly jarring: tables packed with young children snarfing down wings juxtaposed with bar regulars just looking for a beer to drink and a decent game to watch.

Business at Woody's seems to be doing better than at Abbey Road: Managers of the 15-year-old bar, which is off Chapel Hill Road near North Academy Street, said they've seen a 5 percent increase in revenue over the past four weeks since the ban went in place.

"I'm a smoker myself, and I know this has been a good thing for us," co-manager Aaron Engrahm said. "We're a regulars bar, and I am seeing new faces all the time."

Mother Elaine Darwood is one of them. She brought two of her young children to the tavern after work. It was their second time since Jan. 2, the start of the ban.

"I'd be lying to you if I said I never brought my kids to a place with cigarettes floating nearby, but I try to avoid it," she said. "I feel good about taking my kids most anywhere now, and this is a great place to watch games and eat cheaply."

To be sure, some customers are upset by - and in some cases defiant of - the changes.

About an hour before the snow began falling on Friday, a couple dozen customers, mostly men, and three dogs, filled the Iron Horse bar along N.C. 64 in Apex.

"It's dog friendly here," said Al Smith, wearing a leather jacket and palming a cold beer. "Just not smoker friendly."

Smith stepped out to the front patio for a cigarette, bathed in the red glow of a neon sign and standing between the highway and a row of empty tables with ashtrays. He said he didn't think the smoking ban will change the culture of the bar.

"We just roll with it," Smith said. "It'll be bike season soon, and we'll all be outside anyway."

Cassie Rudder, a bartender at the Iron Horse, said that the bar initially turned a blind eye to the rules, until a Wake County inspector visited the remote roadside bar and issued a warning after finding smokers inside.

Iron Horse bartenders do their own policing now, avoiding a $200 daily bar fine for indoor smoking as best they can.

"Half of our customers aren't bothered by the smoking ban but half of them are kind of [upset]," Rudder said. "We're a regulars bar, and it's kind of like telling them they can't smoke in their own home."

Abbey Road is certainly also a regulars bar. But Holt estimated 60 to 70 percent of them are smokers, many also unhappy with the ban.

"I don't want to alienate any customers," he said. "As a non-smoker, I personally support the ban, but I am worried that the character of the bar will change. I really don't know what to expect."

So far, Holt's seeing a slow-down at Abbey Road. It's possible that some regulars aren't staying as long as they used to, he said. Or maybe the post-holiday season is a bad time.

New York City has had a smoking ban for years, and it did not cause widespread business issues. A city report released in 2004, a year after the ban, found that tax receipts for restaurants and bars were up more than 8 percent.

But recent media reports suggested that certain bars are back to ignoring no-smoking rules to cater to their unique audiences - not difficult with lax enforcement.

Holt said he's considering putting a heater next to Abbey Road's two outdoor tables to show smokers he's considerate. The 12-year-old establishment a few years ago paid to make way for a non-smoking family dining area.

"I just hope people stay loyal to the place they love," he said. "At the same time, I hope families who would have otherwise stayed away will become regulars."

Ashby, the woman with the laptop, said she used to hate coming to eat at Abbey Road - even in the non-smoking section.

"There's no real division, so of course the smoke would travel over to our side," she said. "I'm sick of having to take my clothes to the dry cleaner just to get the smell off.

"But I really love beer, the Beatles and, well, the burgers, so, I'm happy to be back."