Not everywhere in Richmond, but the recent decision of a local pub has been high profile.
O’toole’s Restaurant & Pub, an Irish Pub in Westover Hills, just went to non-smoking voluntarily. A lot of people are watching to see if the move hurts or helps their business.
Personally, I think there should be an air quality bill rather than a law banning smoking in restaurants and bars altogether. That would give the owner a couple of choices if smoking gets too bad in their establishment:
1) install a powerful smoke-eater (or 2 or 3)
2) ban smoking in their establishment
I’ve been in some bars where no one was smoking right then, but I could barely breathe. BUT, I’ve been in some bars where everyone was smoking, and I couldn’t smell a trace of smoke.
So what does everyone think? If your favorite bar or restaurant were to ban smoking, would you be more or less likely to go back. Or, would you be more inclined to go to a place that you used to avoid?
