Smoking or non? Soon, it's all non

Starting Saturday, Albert Brown will be forced to alter a cigarette habit he picked up at 9 years old. No more Marlboros over breakfast at the Toot-N-Tell Family Restaurant.

The state's smoking ban doesn't sit well with Brown, now 67, who shows a chest scar to prove his loyalty to tobacco. After heart bypass surgery in 2000, Brown kept smoking.

"The first thing I did when I got in my car was light a cigarette and puff away. Is that stupidity? Of course it is. But I love my cigarettes."

Across North Carolina, smokers and businesses will be changing long-held habits and policies come Saturday. That's when the state that tobacco built, after years of legislative debate, will go smoke-free in nearly all restaurants and bars. The rule changes exempt cigar bars and private clubs such as VFW halls and country clubs.

Business owners have known the changes were coming since Gov. Bev Perdue signed the legislation into law in May, and many have been busy preparing for them.

At The Borough in downtown Raleigh, the bar's ashtrays are being auctioned for charity.

At Milltown in Carrboro, where smokers have always been relegated to outdoor areas, bar owners invested about $4,000 to install heaters on the patio to help "sweeten the atmosphere" on cold nights, said Josh Wittman, co-owner.

Renovations also are planned at Durham's The Federal. Wittman, who also co-owns The Federal, said the back room, which had been designated the non-smoking area, will get a makeover to make the space more inviting to customers. And employees at The Federal will soon give the entire bar a good scrubbing, cleaning the walls and furnishings in an effort to wipe out the smell that would linger otherwise.

Wittman hopes the smoking ban will help business, drawing people to the bar who might not visit because of the smoke.

"Some businesses may actually gain business," said Sally Malek, who heads the Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. She noted that only 1 in 5 adults in North Carolina smoke.

Smoking has never been allowed inside the Busy Bee Café, a bar and restaurant that opened in April on Raleigh's Wilmington Street. Co-owner David Lockwood doesn't anticipate a drop in business simply because his bar's competition also goes smoke-free. The Busy Bee has a rooftop deck where customers are allowed to smoke.

"Our rooftop should be a really busy place when the weather warms up," Lockwood said.

Other places survived

New York City has had a smoking ban for years, and it did not cause widespread business issues. A city report released in 2004, a year after the ban, found that tax receipts for restaurants and bars were up more than 8 percent.

In 1998, California became the first state to ban smoking in most bars. Smoking bans have since gone national and international. Even in Ireland, with its rich pub culture, it is against the law to light up in a bar.

Outside the business realm, North Carolina's ban will help protect public health, Malek said. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke increase their heart-disease risk by 25 percent to 30 percent, and their lung-cancer risk by 20 percent to 30 percent.

At The Downtown Sports Bar and Grill in Raleigh, there will be no more elbows on the bar, a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

For those who don't want to leave their cigarettes at home, owner Robert Stapleton plans to put up a temporary tent, some ashtrays and a heater outside, behind his business. The tent, which will go up each evening and come down at closing time, will give smokers a chance to stay out of bad weather.

Smoking outside on a summer night isn't a big deal, Stapleton said, but on "a rainy night definitely, you'll have some issues."

Not as big as the ones bar owners and patrons face if they defy the ban. Smokers can be fined $50 for lighting up. After two warnings, business owners are subject to fines of up to $200 a day.

Coffee and cigarettes

Brown, who enjoyed several cigarettes with breakfast Tuesday at the Toot-N-Tell in Garner, doesn't plan to break the law. He'll do his smoking before and after his restaurant meals.

Still, he's not happy. For Brown, cigarettes with breakfast are the right way to start the day, as he enjoys his meal and chats with the other regulars.

"This is my vent time. I can't go home and holler at my wife or raise Cain with my kids," Brown said. With a few smokes and a full stomach, "I can kind of mellow it out and go through another day."