BARKEEPS FUMING MAD

Many openly flouting new smoking ban

Bar owner Christy O'Connell broke the law the other day -- three times in
30 minutes.

O'Connell's crime: smoking and allowing his customers to light up in the
Abbey Tavern in San Francisco.

His revolt was repeated all over California, where defiant barflies are
openly blowing smoke in the face of a new state ban on puffing in saloons:

- -- More than half the bars in Humboldt County refuse to recognize the ban,
said Loreen Hamilton, owner of the Riverwood Inn in Phillipsville. County
saloon keepers are so steamed at the state that they are pulling the plugs
on their Lotto machines.

- -- Nearly 150 Alameda County pub owners and managers protested the tobacco
prohibition in Hayward last week.

- -- Bold ``Smoking Permitted'' signs are posted at all four Lucky John's Too
taverns in Orange County.

The 22-day-old law is the nation's toughest against smoking in bars,
taverns and card clubs.

The only exception is for the relatively few owner-operated bars that have
no employees.

The law is ``barbaric, stupid (and) un-American,'' O'Connell said, echoing
the sentiments of hundreds of embittered fellow bartenders.

The smoking ban, critics said, is hurting business. They claim it is
ruining the last indoor hangout for cigarette addicts in California.

``If I complied, I would probably have to close,'' said Hamilton in
Humboldt County. ``I don't make any profit off this bar anyway. My husband
has to work to keep us going.''

Alameda County bar business has slumped 25 percent to 40 percent since the
smoking ban took effect New Year's Day, said Vern Atkinson, bar manager at
Grand Lanes Bowling Center in Hayward.

``We have one gal here that does not smoke, and she's even crying because
her tips are down,'' said Atkinson, who organized the Hayward protest.

``Two of these gals are single mothers. If they don't have the tips, they
can't make it on 7 1/2 bucks an hour,'' Atkinson said.

In Albany, an unemployed writer illegally exhaled in a bar the other day.
He did it, he said, because he is tired of having to smoke in his car.

``I resent being denied my last refuge,'' he said. ``I resent being denied
my vices. . . . It's unnatural to sit down for a drink and not be able to
smoke.''

To elude the ban, some barkeeps are giving smokers empty beer cans and
water-filled Dixie cups to serve as incognito ashtrays. The cans and cups
also hide smoldering butts when strangers show up.

Next week, the state Assembly Appropriations Committee is scheduled to vote
on a bill by Assemblyman Edward Vincent, D-Inglewood, which would let
smokers once again light up in bars, at least through Jan. 1, 2001.

But smokers beware: Palo Alto and San Francisco each issued citations over
the last week for violating the ban.

Palo Alto police gave $100 tickets to the owner of Rudy's Pub and to two
customers at Antonio's Nut House.

The San Francisco Health Department ordered the owners of Capps Corner, the
Occidental Grill and Reflections to appear at a hearing next Tuesday.

No one in San Francisco was fined. But if they are, the cost could be
stiff: $76 for the first offense, $540 for the second and $1,350 for the
third.

Under the state law, local jurisdictions have a degree of latitude in
setting the fines.

About 75 complaints have been received about illegal lighting up in some of
San Francisco's 1,000 bars, said Thomas Rivard, a senior environmental
health inspector for the city's health department.

``They'll comply,'' Rivard said. ``Or they will be very unhappy.''

But many barkeeps hate to make patrons stand out in the cold. They said
warning smokers makes them feel like mean snitches.

``They're making us police it, and that's not fair,'' said David Daher,
owner of the Last Day Saloon in San Francisco. ``I don't want my employees
getting in fights with the customers. . . . It's such a vague law that I,
as a bar owner, don't really know what to do.''

Kathy Wright, a bartender at Fizzees in the Richmond District, agreed.
``I'm not a bouncer,'' she said, while a home health nurse puffed on a
cigarette at the counter.

``No smoking in the bar,'' Wright told the nurse, in a gravelly smoker's voice.

The nurse, a regular, smiled and kept puffing.

``Why should the bar get a fine when I've told people not to smoke?''
Wright said.

But like in Palo Alto, scofflaw patrons can expect a visit from the police,
Rivard said.

Bar owners ``just have to make a good faith effort to ask them to go
outside,'' he said.

Some bartenders, however, like the law. They say their curtains and carpets
no longer stink. They like being able to see across the room.

``I've had people come by and say they wanted to come in here for years,
but it was too smoky,'' said Jack Webb, owner of Ireland 32 in San
Francisco.

Webb had lung-cancer surgery nine years ago. ``If I lost 5 percent of my
business and I saved some lives, good,'' he said.

In Oakland, 385 Club owner Craig Kennedy especially likes the law. Patrons
are smoking legally since his bar is owner-operated.

Kennedy said he has worked 12- to 16-hour days, seven days a week, in his
bar for 6 1/2 years. ``I get tired,'' he said, but he added that his
business is good.

)1998 San Francisco Chronicle