Restaurants in Maine Now Smoke-Free

Even before Maine’s restaurant smoking ban took effect, the air was clear at Bolley’s Famous Franks.

Donald Pooler, the owner of the nine-table eatery down the road from the state Capitol, left no doubt that he would let smokers light up right up to the deadline last month.

After that, he acknowledged, many smokers will be upset by the new rule. “But to tell you the truth,” he added, “I think it will probably help business.”

Maine joins a small list of states that prohibit smoking in restaurants. The law, which authorizes $100 fines for restaurateurs or patrons who violate the ban, makes exceptions for stand-alone bars.

Vermont and Utah have similar laws, and California bans smoking in bars as well as restaurants. A number of cities also have imposed smoking bans in restaurants.

Across Maine, many restaurateurs jumped ahead of the law and posted their businesses as smoke-free, said Ed Miller of the American Lung Assn.’s Maine chapter.

In Eastport, America’s easternmost city, WaCo Diner owner Nancy Bishop said she spent “a fortune” to create a nonsmokers’ dining room overlooking Passamaquoddy Bay long before the law was imposed.

Now the entire eatery will have to go smokeless, and some of the regulars are not happy. “I will lose some customers,” she predicted.

“What bugs me is the freedom-of-choice issue,” she said. “The government has got to stop somewhere legislating everything the individual does.”