Faith Miller’s customers gave it to her straight: If they can’t smoke in her Six Shooters Saloon in Burlington, then they’ll hop in their cars – with designated drivers, of course – and cruise 30 miles down Interstate 70 to Goodland, Kan., so they can light up with their booze.
Miller, who opened her bar less than two years ago, sees the family business squeezed between a strong-willed clientele and a tough state smoking ban that starts Saturday. And both sides have laid down the law.
“They feel like these bars are their places, and it’s not going to be a pleasant ordeal to have to police my customers,” says Miller, who figures she could be out of business within three months. “Anything I serve in here is not healthy for my customers anyway. They’re not coming into my place for their health.”
From the Eastern Plains watering hole to a small-town northwest Colorado bowling alley, proprietors of many establishments likely to be affected by the ban have voiced familiar fears about angry customers, awkward enforcement and lost business.
Other businesses are taking the wide-ranging prohibition on smoking in stride as it snuffs out noxious puffing in restaurants and bars and even some areas in private buildings.
“I think that most restaurateurs are welcoming the smoking ban,” says John Imbergamo, a Denver based restaurant consultant. “This has been on the agenda for so long, restaurants have figured out what to do already. I do think bar owners have a slightly different look at things.”
James Von Feldt, who runs Billy’s Inn in northwest Denver, joined a coalition of bar and tavern owners in filing a lawsuit challenging the measure. They asked a federal judge to keep the law from taking effect as scheduled on July 1 until certain legal issues could be resolved, such as how the ban can outlaw smoking in bars yet exempt casinos.
U.S. District Court Chief Judge Lewis Babcock on Friday turned down the request. He said the notion that smoking is a fundamental right, “equivalent to … the right to travel, the right to vote, the right to procreate and the right to marry, is far-fetched.”
A lawyer for the coalition said the group hasn’t decided whether to appeal the ruling.
Uncertainty prevails
“I can only see bad things coming, period,” says Von Feldt, who predicts the ban will deter many of his blue-collar customers. “Most of the bars I know of simply don’t have a way around it.”
In Craig, Beryl Dschaak sees uncertainty.
Last fall, she opened a $1.5 million bowling alley designed to make everyone happy. The 16 lanes provide a smoke-free experience while a glass-enclosed lounge features a ventilation system geared for smokers as they wait their turn to bowl.
With the new ban, she needn’t have bothered. And now she’s wondering if the added expense plus the smoking ban will drive away customers.
“There’s going to be some people that just give up bowling,” says Dschaak, who estimates 35 percent of her patrons to be smokers. “My biggest thing is the state tells me what I can and can’t do, yet charges me taxes like everybody else. I don’t think that’s fair.”
The Cherry Cricket, a sports bar in Cherry Creek North, also made what now appears to be an ill-timed investment. It installed new fans to clear the air, at a cost of $6,000, about a year ago, says manager Adam Burke.
“Yeah – oops,” he says. “Want to buy one? For cheap?”
“Do what you can do”
In Littleton, where Richard Bolsinger estimates that 90 percent of his customers at the Castle Bar and Grill are smokers, the ban may also have been a boon.
Bolsinger figures that the squeeze on his business imposed by the prohibition might have nudged the city to approve his months-old request to open an adjacent patio where patrons can puff away.
He first considered making his place a cigar bar, which is exempted under the ban, but the law doesn’t allow for creating new cigar bars to skirt the rules.
“You can’t fight it, so you do what you can do,” says Bolsinger, who has set up a full bar, complete with grills and coolers, on the patio. “It’s going to go into effect one way or another.”
At the Bull & Bush Brewery, a popular and notoriously smoky restaurant in Glendale, co-owner David Peterson plans to take the restaurant completely nonsmoking – despite its large patio – with a party on Friday.
At midnight, smokers will ceremonially extinguish all cigarettes, and customers will get to claim all the restaurant’s ashtrays.
“Because we’re not going to need ’em,” Peterson says.
In Arvada, Liz and Myron Funk already have a patio at their Sports Barn tavern – but they can’t allow smoking even there after the city passed an even more stringent ban earlier this month.
“I had people walk in and light up yesterday,” says Liz Funk, noting that many folks wrongly figured they were slipping in a smoke just under the wire. “My people in here are putting up a stink. So we took the bill itself and put it up so everybody can read it.”
The Funks have drawn a line in the sand – or at least spray-painted one on the sidewalk outside the front door. The statewide law prohibits smoking within 15 feet of a main entrance, but Arvada’s ordinance says 25 feet – and the Funks pulled out a tape measure and marked off the distance.
“So they know we’re trying to be conscientious,” Liz Funk says.
And for good reason: Bar owners face fines if they fail to deal with a patron’s intransigence.
“You have to obey the law,” says Von Feldt. “But would you drop a dime on somebody helping you make a living, when they buy five beers a night?”
Just getting started
The ban that goes into effect next Saturday hardly marks the end of the smoking wars. Other states, most notably California, have entertained more expansive anti-smoking measures – laws that focus on outdoor areas and, more recently, discussion of smoking limitations in multiunit housing.
The broadening battle reflects a logical progression, says Esther Schiller, executive director of the California nonprofit Smokefree Air For Everyone.
“People are breathing clean air where they work or in restaurants, and then they come home and they’re breathing their neighbor’s smoke, waking up coughing, their eyes are burning, their throats hurt,” she says. “And there are no laws. We’re overwhelmed by phone calls here in California from people suffering because of neighbors’ tobacco smoke.”
And even though dwelling issues have hit the radar screen in Colorado, the immediate concern of anti-smoking forces here revolves around the current ban, its effective implementation and closing loopholes such as the casino exemption, says Pete Bialick, president of GASP of Colorado, an anti-smoking advocacy group.
And then?
“Probably more of the outdoor stuff,” Bialick says. “The science about outdoor exposure is greater than it was years ago. The key now is to make sure this law is well-followed, and then move on.”
Clearing the air
Q: What should I do if I see someone violating the ban?
A: Smoke Free Colorado advises you to politely inform the smoker and the business of the new law. If the problem persists, either call local law enforcement’s nonemergency line to report the incident or call your local health department to report it.
Q: What’s the penalty for breaking the ban?
A: Both smoker and business can be held liable for illegal smoking. The fine for the first violation is $200, the second is $300, and a $500 fine for every breach after that, until the next calendar year.
A coalition of bar and tavern owners has a pending lawsuit challenging whether they can be held criminally liable when customers smoke.
Q: Can I smoke in an entryway?
A: Nope. The law says you have to be 15 feet from the main entrance, although local law enforcement can specify a larger distance. Under the new state law, you are allowed to smoke near side or back entrances, but local authorities are allowed to make the law stricter. Check with local authorities for possible modifications of the ban.
Q: What about patios?
A: Smoking is allowed outside, but local law enforcement agencies have some discretion about whether a patio can be covered and where it can be placed.
For more answers about the upcoming smoking ban, visit , or call 1-888-701-2006.
YOU CAN SMOKE …
- On an outdoor patio
- On the 16th Street Mall or in any other outdoor area
- At the airport smoking concession lounge
- In a limousine that has been privately hired
- In a hotel room that is designated for smoking
- In your own home
- In a cigar-tobacco bar
- In a licensed casino
YOU CAN’T SMOKE …
- In a bar
- In a restaurant
- In the common areas of an apartment complex or hotel
- In a public building, even with the windows open
- While riding public transportation
- At a theater, museum or library
- In a building’s entryway
- At the gym
Staff writers Chris Frates and Alicia P.Q. Wittmeyer contributed to this report.
Staff writer Kevin Simpson can be reached at 303-820-1739 or ksimpson@denverpost.com.
Nearly 600,000 people in Colorado smoke, and the public ban that takes effect July 1 has the potential to shake up their habit permanently.
Quitting takes a combination of willpower, creativity and support from the folks around you. This week’s Features sections will offer some inspiration.
Monday Fitness: Some good advice on how to quit smoking and where to get the encouragement you need. The good news: There’s plenty of free help out there.
Tuesday Play: The movies have a reputation for glamorizing cigarette use, but that’s not really the case. Cinematic smoking is for bad guys, neurotics and scam artists. Our suggestions for an anti-smoking film festival offer all the brainwashing you need to kick the habit.
Wednesday Food: That after-dinner smoke might feel good, but it can hurt you in the long run. Cigarette smoking is an enemy to good eating – from the start of every meal (it diminishes your ability to taste) to the finish (it impedes digestion).
Thursday Room: Didn’t think we’d leave you with a bad taste in your mouth, did you? We’ll remind you how smoking affects the health level and resale value of your home. On a lighter side, we’ll reveal how five stylemakers have recycled ashtrays for the post-smoking era.
