At first, pubs and smokers seemed to be complying to the new smoke-free regime. But as bar owners saw their revenue plummet, the ashtrays have been put back on the table.

The organization representing hotels, restaurants and cafés, KHN, thinks the Health Minister is leaving small cafés out in the cold. KHN says bar owners should enforce the ban, but argues for compensation for small pubs faced with substantially fewer customers as a result. The organization predicts 1500 to 3000 establishments will go out of business as a result of the ban. KHN managing director Lodewijk van der Grinten says.

Meanwhile the bar owners who are resisting the smoking ban are in defiant mood. A spokesperson for a pressure group representing 1400 bar owners in 32 towns says, “We would rather go under with the ashtrays on the bar, than allow ourselves be led to the slaughter.”

Source: Radio Nederland.  Link

Pubs across the country may be overpaying rates by more than £2,000 a year because the Government failed to correctly assess the impact of the smoking ban.

Shadow communities secretary Eric Pickles said that a £5,000 reduction in the rateable value of their business could save publicans £2,200 a year, at a time when the British Beer and Pub Association estimates that pubs are closing at the rate of 27 a week.

Source:  Telegraph UK  Link

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― On top of the drink tax and the soft economy, the smoking ban has kind of become the coffin nail in the cash register of bars and restaurants.

Although some places are finding a loophole.

“I can tell you right off the bat, three customers that were here in my building three to four days a week no longer stop out of principal they stopped coming all together,” said Marc “Bubba” Snider, owner of Bubba’s Ugly on the North Shore.

While Snider’s neighbors at Firewaters and Mullen’s report little impact on business so far, he says business at Ugly is hurting and he’s hoping his request for an exemption will be approved.

Meanwhile, the folks at Silvoni’s in Ross Township know they won’t qualify for an exemption, but they say they sure could use one.

“For the last two weeks I can definitely say it’s 50 percent off. We’re losing our customers to go up the street, if they do come down here they’ll eat, but then they leave,” said Susie Dragun, of Silvioni’s. “They’re not coming into the bar area to drink and it’s hurting.

But at bars like 222 on Federal Street, and Shenanigans on Babcock Boulevard, which still allow smoking, the ashtrays are busy and business is up.

Source: KDKA.  Link