I caught up to Alex Munro today to ask him about the city’s proposal to ban smoking on restaurant patios. I was particularly interested in his thoughts since he’s the VP of the Heart and Crown Irish Pubs group, which owns James Street Pub, at the corner of Bank St. in Centretown.
I have been a customer of the pub and noticed the patio is incredibly popular with smokers. For whatever reason, it seems there’s more smoking happening on that patio than any other in the neighbourhood. Munro agreed the patio is a magnet for smokers and he suggested there’s a high demographic of blue-collar workers who come to the pub.
Smokers, Munro said, are the “lifeline” of that particular pub. He suggested the city’s no-smoking proposal for patios could sink the establishment completely.
Of course, we don’t really know what’s going to happen until the bylaw comes into force and the summer hits. But I can see how Munro would be concerned about patrons smoking on the sidewalk and leaning over the railing for a sip of their drinks. Liquor inspectors would certainly swoop in.
As an aside, talking to Munro also gave me the opportunity to ask him about rumours that the pub was being turned into condos. The rumours, as it turns out, were true, but Munro said those plans have been shelved. The idea was to keep the pub on the ground floor of a condo building.
If a business goes under just because smokers have to butt out on patios, it is going down the tubes anyway, especially given how short our patio season is in Ottawa. We heard the same stories a decade ago when restaurateurs and bar owners swore they would go out of business because of the smoke-free public places bylaw. Instead, Ottawa now has more bars and restaurants than it did then. Sure, some went out of business, but they were already on shaky ground. Kingston has had a smoke-free patio bylaw for years and it hasn’t had any negative impact on business there.
It’s too soon for a full ban on patio smoking. It must be phased in. Make a small non-smoking area of the pub at the street corner, where people can breathe in the far worse exhaust fumes and not smoke drifting into the air. Enough is enough. Some of our group smokes, some don’t. It’s not a big deal. BUT we watch what we eat and drink and we stay fit and active. Far more important than worrying about smoke drifting away. It’s a stupid bylaw that has NO place in a big city.
Or here’s another idea. Add a raised deck, say 2 feet, to the existing deck, and let non-smokers sit on the lower portions. Smoke does NOT drift down. Done deal. The pub survives, jobs are kept and the Cit y actually maintains some fun for locals AND tourists!