First the Snakes, Now This?

Irish mouths won't be smokin' inside bars Saturday. Will business suffer?


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Published: Mar 14, 2007

business

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Ask McGillin's Old Ale House owner Chris Mullins how he feels about the smoking ban, and he'll show you a wet fistful of multicolored chewing gum. "That's what I pull from the urinals every week," he'll explain. "I get the rubber gloves on, I grab a plunger, and I suck out these little wads from the holes in the men's room."

Along with cleaning lumps of chewing tobacco off the red-tiled floor, Mullins said that's the most troublesome effect of new city laws that send smokers outside to light up.

"Business isn't down," he said, "but my time and the staff's time is wasted on stuff like that."

Since the city's Clean Indoor Air Worker Protection Law, which was passed in Sept-ember and updated in December, Irish-pub owners have complained about lost revenue, hostile neighbors and increasing government control of private watering holes. But Mullins and several other owners agree that the ban won't hurt revenue this St. Patrick's Day weekend.

After all, there aren't many other businesses where, for at least one day a year, droves of patrons are bused to the front door from early morning until late at night. It's the other days of the year that worry some of the area's pub owners.

Mark O'Connor is part-owner of both Irish Pubs in Center City. He got into the business 23 years ago on a whim, because he happened to be in the right place (the Irish Pub in Atlantic City) and talking to the right person (the bar's owner).

"I thought I'd run the place for a year or so," he said last week at the bar off Rittenhouse Square. He stretched his arms wide. "And here I am now."

While weekend business at the Irish Pub is strong, O'Connor claims he's lost a massive number of weekday regulars because of the smoking ban. "I'd say business is down 10 to 15 percent on those days," he said. "And I can see that previously reliable customers are missing."

The sudden but small decline in business doesn't just affect the pub crowd, said Corie Moskow, executive director of Rittenhouse Row, a nonprofit that markets businesses in the area. Late-night business is hurting all around, she said, especially for the crowd that's saddled up to a bar stool for years and had an after-work drink and smoke.

"The owners here are noticing a change," she said. "It's only now started to slowly pick back up again."

There are, of course, dozens of proponents of the smoking ban, whose researched arguments show that secondhand smoke is harmful in closed areas. And anyone will tell you the clean air saves on dry-cleaning bills. Locally, similar bans have been passed statewide in New Jersey, Delaware, New York City and across the pond in Ireland.

But ask John Molnar, who was smoking a Camel outside Moriarty's on Monday, and he'll say that adults can make adult choices. Irish pubs are going to have tobacco-infused hazes because smoking is essentially a ritual in Irish culture. If you don't want to go into a smoke-filled bar, Molnar said, then don't.

But the ban is here, and what also bothers owners like O'Connor is the idea that all bars aren't on an even keel. O'Connor's regular customers have snuck off to small neighborhood taprooms that don't have to follow the ban — there's a loophole that excludes bars that bring in less than 10 percent of revenue from food sales.

There are 22 bars and five private clubs in the city with this exception — including McGlinchey's Bar and Grill on 15th Street — and 115 more have applied for it, said Jeff Moran, spokesman for the city's Department of Public Health.

Bars are also wary of other legislation that could affect how they operate, namely the city's recent ban on trans fat and a bill in City Council committee that would force all major chains — and eventually, says bill sponsor Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, bars that serve food — to post nutritional information on menus.

"It's strange to say this, but now I see where people who support the NRA are coming from," O'Connor said. "It's a slippery slope. One regulation leads to another. Before you know it, the city will order your food for you."

Outside Moriarty's, Molnar couldn't agree more. He understands being exiled to the sidewalk in the middle of dinner — he's fine with a smoking ban in restaurants, but bars, he said, makes no sense.

"The city wastes time on common-sense stuff like this," he said. "They should spend more time trying to fix the crime problem around here."

(tom.namako@citypaper.net)