Sandbar Lounge closes; owner blames smoking ban

Casper Star Tribune ^ | November 30, 2015 | Heather Richards

[Ditter]

To what do you attribute all the wrecks, icy streets, driving drunk?

[Reno89519]

No sympathy. My dad died of tobacco-caused cancer this past summer—still smoking while on ventilator. Sandbar’s loss or excuse that they could not find a way to stay in business without smoking. Others do fine.

[Boomer]

Smoking aside. If this bar/restaurant is closing after only one month of the new smoking ban then it was getting ready to close soon anyway.

I was just there in August passing through. The steakhouse I stopped in for dinner wasn’t very busy and the bartender said that since the oil took a dive; all the eateries in town were slow.

This is much more than just a smoking ban issue.

[Jack Black]

Casper Mayor Charlie Powell said he was sorry to hear that Sandbar would close but noted the decision was ultimately made by the voters.

Next up: A vote on making the mayor's house into a half-way house for drug addicts and sex offenders. If it passes, he has no right to complain. I mean, he can be sorry, but it will have been decided by the voters, right?

[Gene Eric]

It doesn’t take much to break the bank.

Good observation. The smoking ban was likely the final nail.

[ichabod1]

I haven’t seen a bar that allowed smoking in Texas in quite some time, though in the country it might be different. Hell, you can’t even smoke in bars in India.

[ichabod1]

Once all the bars are forced to ban it, people who don’t feel like drinking alone eventually bite the bullet and come on in. However, as the article correctly pointed out, there is a lag time in there.

[C. Edmund Wright]

If you don’t want to patronize bars that allow smoking don’t patronize bars that allow smoking.

Does seem kinda simple doesn't it? Liberty is almost always the answer.....

[octex]

I haven’t seen a bar that allowed smoking in Texas in quite some time,...
*****************************
Sounds like you need to get out more. Many bars/restaurants have designated smoking areas with very active exhaust fans. My local Waffle House also has such an area, where I can enjoy a leisurely meal, good coffee and several smokes.

[ichabod1]

Not in Houston.

[waterhill]

Casper? As in Wyoming?
aw, bless their hearts, let them smoke wherever they want!

Casper? I would rather live in Lubbock

[PoloSec]

Smoking (as if the slope was not already slippery enough) is where we the people poured grease down the slope, it took many years to come to fruition, now anything goes into the cauldron of burning liberties sitting at the bottom of freedoms mountain.

Those who would sacrifice liberty for safety deserve neither.

[trebb]

May they enjoy the loss of tax dollars from the lack of taxable revenue.

They probably more than made up for it via increased cigarette taxes....

[null and void]

Just think of all the folks that would like to go to a place without a bunch of smoke in their faces all night. Probably enough for a few other places to call themselves smoke free and bring in some new customers.

PRECISELY!

This is the free market solution to this so-called problem.

[null and void]

That was 2007, a lot has changed since then, I guess.

[sheana]

We have a bar here where I live in California that still allows smoking. Its nickname has always been Menopause Manor since it is right down the street from a retirement building and a lot of them smoke. The bartender and everyone else just kind of shrugs their shoulders.

[Svartalfiar]

I haven’t seen a bar that allowed smoking in Texas in quite some time, though in the country it might be different

There are several here in the Dallas area. Logie's and Wizard's Cafe come to mind. There's also some BYOB Cigar bars that (obviously) allow smoking as well, though the nicer places (En Fuego) heavily discourage cigarettes.