Being in Ontario for the last (well, most of of life, but the last 4 years or so) The question asked of me in Denny’s in Ohio, and in Minnisota was something I have not heard in ages after asking for a table for 3 and thinking that was the end of it.
until the host asks…Smoking, or Non?
I cannot tell you how great it is sitting in restaurants and not seeing/smelling anyone smoking is.
Even my friends who are smokers say they are happy they can’t smoke in restaurants.
Greatest thing ever
yeah…having to wallow in second hand smoke kinda takes away from the whole restaurant experience…
Can’t wait till Quebec is like that… Next month I think. Smoke doesn’t usually bother me, but my gf feels sick from it sometimes 
but you should see what it’s like when the public places are clear of it, it’s night and day!
Smoking in restaurants is going to be banned in the UK from next year I think- yay!
I lived in Canada for a while and the smoking ban was a very cool feature of going out there, going to a bar and not coming back stinking of smoke was a completely new experience!
Just wondering, why is this thread called Alright New Jersey?
I’ve pretty much grown up with this concept…tell your respective regions to stop slacking off. 
As a rather curious person (and resident of New Jersey), I have to ask…
What’s the New Jersey connection?
i can only assume that brian is thinking that New Jersey went smoke free.
but then again, i can never really know what brian is thinking, so who knows!!!
i do know that both st paul and minneapolis bars (well most of them) are smoke free now, and i LOVE IT!
The all knowing box (TV with CNN on it) said that New Jersey was either the 8th, or like 8 other states that has passed the smoking bylaw
Nothing like governments telling you and private enterprise what you can and can’t do. I can’t wait for mandatory government issued water that ensures a certain degree of purity at the cost of the consumer. Who knows what kind of pipes lead into your house and you must be protected from yourself.
You go through life and you choose. Or you vote to have your choices slowly taken away from you. Why didn’t non-smoking restaurants and bars just take off on their own? It’s such a great idea.
I don’t like bars or restaurants or coffee shops where you can smoke. I like even less having governments tell the owners of these establishments that they can’t have smoking in them. I can choose where to go and I can vote with my dollars.
More thought; less legislation.
Banning smoking in public places isn’t about ‘protecting people from themselves’. It’s about protecting others from the effects of second-hand smoke. Your analogy seems to be better suited to a situation where smoking were to be banned entirely, which is not the same thing at all.
Because what’s best for business and what’s best for people’s health isn’t necessarily the same thing? In particular employees health, as short of changing their jobs, they can’t ‘vote with their dollars’. Smoking is already banned in enclosed work spaces in the UK (I think) and the smoking ban in bars just brings them into line with this.
There actually are already a lot of restaurants in the UK where smoking is not allowed. It seems to be slowly becoming more popular without the legislation. I think that if the government had not moved to ban smoking, non-smoking bars would have slowly became the norm anyway, but it would have taken a hell of a long time.
I agree entirely. There would have been MORE non-smoking establishments AND there would still be some that smokers could patronize.
Although I love the non smoking laws (We have them in CT, and NY, it’s great), I agree with harper.
Resteraunts are private establishments (non government) and peope that own them should be able to let people smoke or not, their choice. If a resteraunt wants to be non-smoking, thats awesome, if not, then I won’t go there. (Actually, I don’t even know if it would have that much of an effect on me, but I prefer non-smoking, by far).
I’m also in favor of the legalization of ALL drugs. I don’t like the government teling me what I cant or can’t do… it’s called personal responsibility.
I thought this was going to be a thread about a cool new cycling jersey. 
Smoking cigars in resturants
One of the hoity toity yuppie things that I have experienced recently in rather upscale steak houses is the waiter coming by after dinner hawking cigars!
Cigars are back in vogue, and for some reason this particular resturant must think itself very chic.
I don’t understand how they can do this when there is a state law forbidding it.
AND cigars especially; they smell like burning dung. (Kinda look that way too, don’t they?)
Long story short: I left, never to return.
They can patronize them all they want. They just can’t smoke in them 
I like the fact that I don’t have to wonder if the restaurant I am going to will be smoking or non. It’s unfortunate that it has to be a government decision, but hey, it’s one of their better ones
Sometimes I actually agree with Harper. (I’d put a pink smiley here but Greg hates smileys)
Before the craze of state-wide smoking bans there were some pubs and restaurants that were voluntarily non-smoking. I would go to those pubs more often than the smoking pubs. If other people did the same then the number of pubs and restaurants that were voluntarily non-smoking would increase. Encourage market forces to work and the problem would have evened out to a degree that would satisfy both groups (smokers and non-smokers).
Nothing is as logical as a majority of voters deciding what’s good for bars and pubs when the majority of people voting don’t patronize bars and pubs. Same goes for a majority of voters deciding that motorcyclists have to wear helmets.
You still aren’t satisfying the group of employees who work at these would be smoking restaurants and are subjsected to known health risks. (and let’s not hear any stupid arguments along the lines of 'oh, well they should go work in a non-smoking restaurant)
Perhaps smoking establishments should be forced to have comprehensive health coverage for the workers?
Oh, and put on a motorcycle helmet! 
Yes, no arguments based on choice. That would be a thought crime and would get you wrung by the government thought police.
How about ideas like the government lowering taxes on the businesses that go smoke free? Or charging only half the sales tax on food at smoke free bars, pubs, and restaurants? There are ways to encourage the market forces rather than doing an end run all the way around them.
That’s an awful lot of tax revenue lost as opposed to smokers going to restuarants anyways and not smoking.
Why must people have the government force them to have what should be ‘common’ coutersy?
Doesn’t matter much anyways, the non-smokers have already won