NEWS
Cigar bar owners lament recent loss of business
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by Darryl Schnell
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
With winter around the corner, cigar and hookah bars in the City of Madison will struggle to stay afloat under the burden of the smoking ban ordinance, according to bar owners.
Like any other restaurant or tavern in the City of Madison, cigar and tobacco bars may only allow patrons to smoke outdoors. This is damaging to business, and, according to Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, unfair.
"It's not right for a city ordinance to take away the main draw of a business," Verveer said. "The majority of a cigar or hookah bar's business comes from people who go there to smoke."
With limited outdoor seating space, the ordinance limits the number of people who can comfortably smoke at a tobacco bar. Brian Haltimer, owner of Maduro Cigar Bar near the Capitol, said his business has dropped by one-third since enforcement of the smoking ban began July 1, because he can now only serve a limited number of people.
"We already had an outdoor smoking area on the sidewalk in front of our building before the ban took effect," Haltimer said on his way to a Ban the Ban meeting. "And the positioning of our building does not allow us to construct a patio expansion. We can only seat 12 people outside at a time to smoke."
The Casbah Restaurant and Lounge near the Capitol, which features a hookah bar, is experiencing similar business drawbacks as a result of the ban.
"We have to sit everyone who wants to smoke hookah outside, and we can only sit six or eight people out there comfortably," kitchen manager Kane Goulet said. "The ban not only takes away from our hookah bar revenue, but from other revenue as well because people who come to smoke hookah will often buy drinks or some food."
Goulet said prospects for the continuation of the hookah bar at the Casbah Restaurant and Lounge does not look promising as the weather in Madison gets colder. The lounge will depend on older clientele during the winter months.
"We're probably going to have to shut down our hookah bar for the winter," Goulet said. "We're trying to do something before snow starts falling, but things aren't looking good. We still have our older, slightly more mature crowd who comes here for fine dining. So we've added specials to our menu and things like that to accommodate them."
According to Goulet, the Casbah Restaurant and Lounge owner and staff have made exhaustive efforts to counteract the effects of the smoking ban. The owner of the Casbah has attended every meeting regarding the ban, he has looked into the possibility of becoming a nonprofit organization and he has tried to use a hookah tobacco substitute, all without success, Goulet said.
Haltimer said the fight over the ban is not through, saying he continues to try to exempt Maduro from the ordinance and holds out hope for a statute.
"The state of Wisconsin is looking at enacting a statewide smoking ban policy," Haltimer said. "However, the statute would provide cigar bars like mine the ability to allow smoking."
