Posted on 01/09/2008 1:50:08 PM PST by demsux
After months of protesting Columbia’s smoking ordinance and spearheading a failed campaign to have it repealed, Joel Thiel, co-owner of Otto’s Corner Bar & Grill, said he decided this week to close doors for good.
Julia Robinson photos Above, Brett Wisman, left, and Kristal Allen smoke cigarettes after dinner last night at Otto’s Corner Bar & Grill in downtown Columbia. Below, Otto’s co-owner Joel Thiel works yesterday in the restaurant. Otto’s will close next week, a move Thiel blamed on the city’s smoking ban. He said sales have been down 30 percent since the ban took effect in January.
"Our sales are down 30 percent," he said comparing his profits to those before a city ordinance took effect banning smoking in public places nearly a year ago. "We’ve been trying to hang on, but after a while, you’ve got to cut the arm off and cauterize it to stop the bleeding. It’s ridiculous."
While tending bar last night for just fewer than 20 patrons, Thiel said Otto’s will close Tuesday. By his count, the bar’s closure marks No. 16 since the ban.
"You tell all the smokers to go to hell - what do you think is going to happen? You put people out of business," he said. "The mayor needs to get his head out of the sand and realize that to legislate everybody’s behavior when it comes to a legal product like tobacco is wrong."
Mayor Darwin Hindman said last night in a phone interview that he believes there will be winners and losers as a result of the smoking ban, but he’s confident the economy will even out.
Hindman pointed to two examples of businesses ready to fill vacancies from recent closures. Shiloh Bar & Grill will move into the former Colosseum Bistro space at Fourth Street and Broadway, and Billiards on Broadway, a "family friendly" pool hall, will open at 514 E. Broadway with pool tables purchased from Columbia Billiards, which closed in June.
"Maybe the smoking ban has affected some restaurants, but I cannot believe the smoking ban is the only cause," Hindman said.
For more than a month, Thiel has posted Hindman’s home phone number on the window at Otto’s asking people to call and complain about the ordinance. Hindman said he has received regular calls.
"Quite often it happens late at night, and the people seem to have been partaking of alcohol," he said, adding that some have called to support the ban. "Now when we get a call at 1:30 a.m., we’re no longer worried it’s an emergency."
Last month, Thiel and Betty Hamilton, owner of Tiger Club, 1116 Business Loop 70 E., filed a petition asking the Columbia City Council to vote on a repeal of the smoking ordinance. Although Thiel and Hamilton had spent months gathering signatures for the petition, it did not have enough valid signatures to be placed on the council’s agenda.
Sitting at the bar last night, some patrons said Columbia is losing a beloved institution in the six-year-old Otto’s.
"I said last year if the smoking ban was passed, I wasn’t going out, and I’ve been to the grill maybe three times in a year," said Kristal Allen, a smoker who sat sipping a coffee and brandy.
"We used to go three times a week," said Brett Wisman, who also is a smoker.
"It’s better to stay home," Allen added with a shrug.
At the other end of the bar, the Fish family was out for dinner. Bill Fish said he was slightly more likely to bring his son, Brendan, 9, to a place that wasn’t smoke-filled.
"I don’t know that I would adamantly say that I wouldn’t come here because it was a smoky bar, but I would tend to keep him out of here after-hours if it was particularly smoky," Fish said.
Fish said he was sorry to see the place go.
"It’s too bad it’s closing, but I think a lot of places are struggling right now," he said.
I guess not.
Ping
3000 bars went under in California.
It should be up to the OWNER what goes on in his/her establishment. If it's legal...
Post a sign..for the nanny stater's saying..."This Is A Non-Smoking Establishment"...OR..."This is a SMOKING Establishment".
Let the public choose....
Apparently that's too hard..for the socialist minded.
I understand some are getting humidors installed in order to use the “cigar-bar” exception.
“The whole point is lost on the sheeple...and unfortunately some FReepers too.
It should be up to the OWNER what goes on in his/her establishment. If it’s legal...”
A friend of mine has a bar in the San Fernando Valley. He was always packed with customers. When the ban went into effect, he turned his bar into a private club. The name was the Ventura Blvd. Yacht Club. Membership was 10 dollars a year. The only constraint in the charter was that you were not allowed to discuss boats. : )
See post 7
The best protest for smokers is to Just Stay Home
But the public has decided that it’s illegal for people to smoke in Bars and Restaurants.
Unfortunately for me, my own state has passed one in the last couple of years -- so I can't be as strict about this as I used to be.
Too bad bars and resturants arent public property...they are private property...if the puplic dont like it...it can go elsewhere...
Free markets work...
Fact is...the “public” is financially harming these businesses without just renumeration and compensation...
It’s theft at the end of a gun barrel.
I know owners of two bars. Actually one of them owns multiple bars. They both said their business increased when they made their places non-smoking.
If ONLY we had a cigar bar exemption in WA state. We live in the eighth circle of liberal hell here. I think the only place worse is possibly Massachusetts, but I may be wrong about that, and we’ve dropped another level.
Sad to see it close.
Although, I spent more time there when it was the Atomic and Cornerstone Cafe.
And the city won’t miss the revenue, right?
We can say the same thing about immigration work laws.
Theft at the end of a gun barrel.
I agree that it should be up to the individual business owner and not the government to install a smoke-free environment. I am not a smoker (I quit 20 years ago). And, I do enjoy having a cold beer with friends at the local tavern after work. That being said, the smoke in that tavern (and others like it) can be intolerable. I have just been diagnosed with bladder cancer, a disease that all studies now show has exposure to cigarette smoke as the No. 1 risk factor.
Did THEY make their places non-smoking or did the government MAKE THEM go non-smoking...
BIG DIFFERNCE
Baloney....
While I'll admit to knowing for sure...but please point out one state/county/city that had a popular vote on it.
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