PAGE 33 WEDNESDAY, MAY 27, 1987 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Beverly Hills Restaurant Patrons Puff On As New Ban on Smoking Goes Unenforced By KATHLEEN A. HUGHES plaints and issued one citation. A smoker fine the bar area and that's what they Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL can be fined up to $500. came up with," he says. BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.-Sor fancy But few restaurants tell smokers that. Naturally. all this has bred resentment restaurants here have quietly created Calls to several restaurants inquiring among restaurant owners who claim they large smoking sections despite the city's about a smoking section elicited the follow- are enforcing the law by telling patrons recent ban on smoking in restaurants and ing responses: they can't smoke. "I have chosen to abide other public places. - -"It's up to you if you want to smoke. by the law 100% and to fight at every turn And since the Beverly Hills police We're not telling people not to smoke." to change it," says Bob Spivak, the owner aren't patrolling the posh restaurants, L'You can smoke. No one has gotten of The Grill. "But there are a dozen other small battles are breaking out between arrested. There has to be a court case.' restaurants here where my customers can smoking and nonsmoking diners. -"Smoking isn't a problem." go to smoke. It's frustrating.' A similar fraças could be repeated in Restaurant owners have taken different The new smoking sections are also con- the dozens of other cities that are appar- approaches in creating smoking sections, fusing to nonsmokers who expect Beverly ently considering similar smoking bans. partly due to different floor plans. Here Hills restaurants to be smoke-free after a blitz of media coverage about the ordi- The new law has been heavily publicized are just a few innovations: since it was adopted in March, and Bev- -La Famiglia: Joe Patti, the owner, nance. Faced with the laissez-faire attitude erly Hills has received more than 75 re- says the restaurant allows smoking every- of both restaurateurs and the police, some quests for information from city halls where since the bar is in the middle of the nonsmokers have become militant. across the country. But the city apparently relatively small dining room. "According Steve Grant.itl general. manager of isn't aware of the new smoking sections. to the law, it's a wide-open bar,' says Mr. Prego, another upscale restaurant, says-a "So far the ordinance has been working Patti, "The ordinance doesn't make least five to six diners light cigarettes each very smoothly," says Fred Cunningham, sense, he adds. On many evenings, he night. "Nonsmokers run over and start the city spokesman. says, people are smoking at more than half screaming at them. It's bad for the morale Restaurateurs don't agree. They say the tables. of the Beverly Hills diner," says Mr. business is down-1 by about 30% since the -The Bistro Garden: Mr. Niklas, the Grant. "There's a lot. of tension between law took effect, in April. A newly formed manager, says the restaurant allows smok- customers.' Mr. Grant, like many other group, the Beverly Hills Restaurant Asso- restaurateurs, says when there's a con- ciation. has sued the city in state court frontation he tells the smoker about the claiming, among other things, that the law T THE ORDINANCE law. unfairly exempts hotel restaurants. It allows smoking in Both La Famiglia and Prego say diners seeks repeal of the law. sometimes refuse to pay for dinner be- bars. So some restaurants One Big Bar cause someone in the restaurant was have extended their 'bar smoking. Meanwhile, some enterprising restaura- teurs claim to have discovered a loophole: areas' to include extremely Smoked Out The ordinance allows smoking in bars and One annoyed nonsmoker was Victor cocktail lounges. So some have extended large dining areas and Costello, a vice president of sales for Bal- their "bar areas" to include extremely even the entire restaurant. landa Corp. in Los Angeles who lunched large dining areas and, in some cases, the with his wife and eight-month old child re- entire restaurant. Several still have ash- cently at Pastel. The family unwittingly trays on all dining tables. ing on the grounds that the main dining sat at one of the nine tables in the "bar "People know the law is open-ended area has doors that open to a patio. The area" and the diners at the next table and vague, and the law is being manipu- entire restaurant, he says, is dining "al smoked. lated to the best of the restaurateurs' abil- fresco." Patio smoking isn't mentioned in "When I saw the smoker I felt we ity to stay above water," says Christopher the ordinance but a city attorney says should leave." said Mr. Costello, who took Niklas, the manager of The Bistro Garden, smoking would be acceptable on a patio. his child outside when the other diners one of the fanciest restaurants. "People -Tony Roma's: The restaurant is di- started to smoke. "I thought there wasn't feel comfortable smoking here." he adds. vided into two rooms, and a no-smoking smoking in Beverly Hills anymore," said Rudy Cole, executive director of the sign is posted over the door to one of them. his wife, Helen. new restaurant association. says that In the second room. which seats 62 people Smokers, of course, are often delighted "what's really happening is that there's and includes a bar, diners are told they to discover they can smoke in a Beverly little or no enforcement of the ordinance. can smoke. The rooms are separated by a Hills restaurant. When Dan Deibel. a Los There are plenty of places where people hallway but the restrooms are in the Angeles builder and a smoker. was dining can eat and smoke in Beverly Hills." Mr. smokers' dining room. A manager declined with friends at La Famiglia. a waiter told Cole says the restaurant association favors to comment. one of the diners he could smoke at the ta- a law that provides for smoking and non- -Kate Mantilini: Mark Weinstein, the ble. So Mr. Deibel ordered a pack of Marl- smoking dining areas. general manager of the new architectural boro Lights from the restaurant and Under the new law. the restaurants are extravaganza, says diners are allowed to smoked, too. required only to post no-smoking signs; smoke at the first four dining tables and I thought it was funny that the restau- they aren't required to enforce the law, the first three dining booths. The bar runs rant was selling the cigarettes." says Mr. That's up to the city, and the Beverly Hills the length of the long open restaurant. Mr. Deibel. "One person lit up and no one said police are only responding to complaints. Weinstein said he doesn't know why those anything. and by the end of the evening we Mr. Cunningham. the city spokesman. says tables were chosen as the smoking area. were all smoking. Until I get stopped. I'll so far the police have received 30 com- "Our attorneys found out how you can de- continue to ent in Beverly Hills. T121901854 _Source:https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/ffbb0032