Smoking in Bars

I had always thought smoking in bars was kind of the norm. Bars didn’t really feel like bars without the smoky atmosphere. Growing up, my favorite restaurant was the Wooden Nickel Pub in Valdosta. It’s a bit strange that I liked this place so much because it doesn’t fit my clean cut, smoke-free, somewhat upscale personality, yet throughout middle and high school, I was one of the most regular customers at this hole-in-the-wall smoky pizza joint.

In Georgia, almost all bars still allow smoke. Since I moved out of Valdosta, they passed an ordinance that no smoking would be allowed in restaurants but in bars it is still allowed. I suppose the Wooden Nickel never sold enough alcohol to qualify as a bar, and around the same time as the new smoking ordinance, they moved to a new location, which was clean and more like a chain restaurant. The atmosphere isn’t the same, and I miss the old smoky pub. Likewise, Rocky Mountain Pizza, at the corner of 10th and Hemphill in Atlanta, was one of my favorite places – it’s a lot of people’s favorites – while I was at Georgia Tech. The atmosphere is the same as the Wooden Nickel save for the Georgia Tech students there are the main customers. The pizza is perhaps a little better and the crowd a little louder.

Recently, I’ve visited the northeast and the west and found that they mostly disallow smoking in bars. This feels odd to me. While I have never smoked a cigarette in my life, I still feel like smoking goes hand in hand with beer. But I’m coming around to the idea of smoke-free bars. Actually, one of my favorite bars in Atlanta, Hand in Hand in the Virginia Highlands area, is smoke-free, at least inside. There is a huge outdoor area where smoking is permitted.

I was inclined to think that keeping the smoking out of bars would decrease sales by a substantial amount. But really it might just make bars more welcoming to non-smokers. And I’ve found that people who smoke don’t really mind. It gives them an excuse to take a break and go outside for a smoke, which can be good for everyone – the taking a break from the group and going outside. I am in no way condoning smoking as a good thing but I do find it socially acceptable in certain situations.