Put Upon Ritz Those who think smoking bans don t change the overall atmosphere of a restaurant should consider what happened in the San Francisco Ritz-Carlton Hotel s cigar bar. The posh hotel was forced to get out of the cigar business when California instituted its smoking ban. We lost a decent amount of money by not having a cigar bar, said Food and Beverage Director Julien Carralero. We had over 115 single-malt scotches that we are not selling, now that we don t sell cigars.
Guests now sit in the former cigar bar and eat dessert.
Of course, since the National Institutes of Health recently redefined its Body Mass Index, making 35 million more American adults officially overweight, a dessert bar seems to be an ironic result of the smoking ban. All rights reserved. 1775 Pennsylvania Ave.