Anti-Smoking Ordinance Faces Hazy Future : Health: Bellflower’s ban on lighting up in restaurants has not crushed business. But critics are making it an election issue.

Todd Daniel is proud to say that the only thing smoked at his restaurant is the salmon.

That is because his French-style bistro is in Bellflower--the only city in Southern California where officials have taken a deep breath and imposed a ban on smoking in restaurants.

Smokers and restaurant operators alike were left fuming when Bellflower’s anti-smoking ordinance took effect a year ago. Both groups predicted that businesses would be snuffed out as angry smokers deserted the city 13 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles.

But that has not happened.

These days, business at most of Bellflower’s 130 restaurants seems steady. Conflicts between waiters and smokers are virtually nonexistent. Confrontations between the cigarette police and restaurant operators are rare.

Many restaurateurs now speak glowingly of the law.

“With smoking, the walls got a yellowish color. We had burned tabletops and seats. Everything smelled,” said Fernando Esquer, manager of a Denny’s on the west side of town.

“The other day somebody came by to get us to support bringing smoking back. But no, I don’t think so.”

Not everybody is happy, however. And critics of the ordinance hope to overturn it by supporting pro-smoking candidates in an April 14 City Council election.

Two seats are up for grabs--one held by a supporter and the other by an opponent of the law. Six of the eight candidates in the race have indicated that they would consider replacing Bellflower’s law with a Los Angeles-style ordinance.

Los Angeles requires restaurants to reserve only half their seats for nonsmokers. City Council members recently rejected a plan by Councilman Marvin Braude to ban smoking in restaurants.

To critics of Bellflower’s law, that is proof their six-square-mile community of 63,000 is out of step with other cities.

“If this town had any sense, we’d defeat our ordinance, too,” grumbled Chuck Wells as he stood the other day behind the deserted bar at the Casa Grande, a Mexican-style restaurant he has owned for 24 years. Wells claims he lost $500 a day in business when smoking was prohibited at the bar.

He is installing a $4,500 wall between the bar and his dining room that will exempt those sipping margaritas and tequila sunrises from the smoking ban. But he is also selling his business; escrow closes May 15.

Nearby, Norman Chien, owner of Curly Jones Restaurant, said he may be forced to close because of the smoking crackdown. His coffee shop has been cited twice for violating the Bellflower ordinance--the only citations issued so far by city officials.

The first $100 violation came after officials received complaints that Chien was allowing patrons to smoke in his dining room. The second citation--carrying a $250 fine--was issued when officials discovered that Chien had set up a “smoker’s club” in a back room. He was allowing “members” to eat and smoke there, said Michael Egan, assistant city administrator.

“Business is now 60% off here,” Chien said glumly. “People don’t want to sit and then get up and go out and smoke and then come back in.”

Across town at Ricci’s Italian Deli, co-owner Mike Galasso contended his business has dropped 30% because he was ordered to put away his ashtrays.

“I’ve had people walk in and walk right out when I told them there was no smoking,” he said. Repeating a charge leveled by other ordinance critics, Galasso said two Bellflower restaurants have been forced to shut their doors because of the loss of smokers’ business.

That is a matter of dispute, however.

Construction company operator Jerry Cleveland is president of the Bellflower Chamber of Commerce and an opponent of the smoking ordinance. He is also building the wall between the bar and the dining room at the Casa Grande.

Although he is convinced that the smoking ban is “definitely hurting the majority of restaurants here, I don’t blame the ordinance for the two closures,” Cleveland said.

City finance director Linda Lowry said the defunct restaurants were on a downward spiral long before the smoking ban took effect. Furthermore, the latest statistics from the State Board of Equalization show that the city’s dine-in restaurant business has remained steady, she said.

Bellflower’s 41 sit-down restaurants chalked up about $3.8 million in gross sales in the fourth quarter of last year, compared to about $3.5 million during the first quarter of 1991, according to figures compiled by city revenue consultant Robert Hinderliter.

The loss of smokers’ business has probably been offset by nonsmokers who come to eat from the nearby cities of Downey, Norwalk, Paramount, Lakewood and Cerritos, officials said.

Visiting Los Angeles resident Jhamal Hamilton said he was pleased by the Bellflower Denny’s smokeless environment. “I’d definitely choose to eat in Bellflower if I could,” he said. “Los Angeles could take a lesson from Bellflower.”

Newport Beach visitor Paul Tamborrino made a note on the back of a business card to return to Bellflower’s Cafe Camellia after dining there with a friend. “I prefer to frequent more restaurants with no-smoking policies,” he said.

At Magdalena’s, a gourmet restaurant known as Bellflower’s most expensive, co-owner Amy White said that although some longtime smoking customers have drifted away, “I’d have to say that the recession is hurting us more than the smoking ordinance.”

Up Bellflower Boulevard at the upscale Marino’s Italian Restaurant, owner Tom Marino praised the law: “I like it. The customers like it. Most people comment favorably on the ordinance.”

A few blocks away, Todd Daniel said a smoke-free environment “enhances” the Continental-style food he serves at Cafe Camellia, the city’s other expensive restaurant.

Nonetheless, there are pro-smoker and anti-smoker council campaign posters in Cafe Camellia’s front windows.

Incumbent Randy Bomgaars’ sign is one of them. “Smoking is a health issue, not a rights issue,” said Bomgaars, who helped enact the anti-smoking ordinance with last year’s 3-2 council vote.

Incumbent Joe Cvetko, who voted against the ordinance, is campaigning for reelection by promising to help change the smoking law. Setting aside 20% of restaurants’ seats for smokers would “let both parties live in harmony with each other,” Cvetko said.

On the east side of town at the Sizzler, manager Sergio Colon predicted that the election will have little impact on his busy steakhouse, despite who wins.

That is because Colon has decided to prohibit smoking in his restaurant permanently--no matter what the city does.

“We’re happy with the ordinance and hope it doesn’t change. We have customers from Norwalk who live close to another Sizzler who come here because there’s no smoking here,” Colon said. “We’ve very pleased.”

In adjoining Cerritos, where restaurant smoking is allowed, Spires restaurant manager Lazaro Gonzalez said few Bellflower smokers bother to travel the few hundred yards beyond their city limits in order to eat and smoke at his place.

“I always have more of a waiting line for the nonsmoking section, even though we’re right on the borderline with Bellflower,” Gonzalez said.