At Bars, Where There’s Smoke, There’s Ire

Someone needs to choke the smoke out of the Revere House in Tustin.

City code enforcement, the Tustin police and the City Council haven’t done much of anything to stop cigarette smoking in the Revere House restaurant’s bar. Maybe consumers who care about our laws should, by taking their business elsewhere.

A new county Health Care Agency report shows that most bars and bar/restaurants are complying with California’s 2-year-old no-smoking law. But also, 16% of restaurants and bars combined refuse to comply--and that number jumps to 41% for just stand-alone bars.

So I took a night out this week to conduct my own informal drinking establishment survey. In four out of five places I hit, the customers were puffing away as if they’d never heard California had a smoke ban.

It’s not the smoke that’s offensive; it’s the gall.

I’ve singled out the smoke-happy Revere House for a reason: Its owner, Mike Doyle, is a member of the Tustin City Council. The City Council is ultimately responsible for the enforcement of the laws within its boundaries.

City Council members aren’t supposed to be flipping the bird to lawmakers.

I’d be embarrassed if I were Doyle’s colleagues on that City Council.

“Totally; we are embarrassed,” said Tustin Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Thomas.

Many Complaints

Then why hasn’t code enforcement, or the police, come knocking more often at the Revere House door? The police, Doyle said, have cited only one of his customers despite numerous visits following citizen complaints. When I was there, they could have cited close to a dozen.

“It’s touchy,” Thomas said, “Because as a councilman, he is their boss. It’s going to take a news reporter to really put the heat on Mike.”

Doyle says he’s not violating any laws by allowing smoking: “My customers might be, but I’m not.”

To me, that’s the finest in hair-splitting. Doyle also says the way the law reads, he cannot refuse service to anyone for smoking.

I’d say he’s blowing smoke with that argument. For restaurants with bars, compliance is 92%. All those folks somehow found a way to turn down smokers.

Doyle happens to be a leader in statewide efforts to get the smoking ban law repealed. So what? That doesn’t make his place exempt.

Those who ignore the smoking ban are punishing those bars that obey the law, said Herm Perlmutter, who oversees the bar smoking ban for the county’s Tobacco Use Prevention Program.

“An increasing number of our complaints are coming from businesses who say the place down the street is hurting their income by allowing smoking,” Perlmutter said.

You don’t have to see anyone lighting up at the Revere House to know what’s going on. You smell the smoke the instant you walk into the bar.

Doyle does have “no smoking signs” posted. But he’s also got a sign that says “My customers are my business. Repeal the ban on smoking.”

And next to that sign, he provides ashtrays for the customers he’s just told there’s “no smoking.”

I picked Captain Bombay’s in Anaheim for my next stop because it’s the only bar in my neighborhood. I’d never been there and didn’t know what to expect.

It was a smokefest. I may have been the only nonsmoker there. The smokers included a man sitting at the bar lost in his own world, conducting to the juke box music as if he were standing in front of the Boston Pops. Also chain-smoking was a pool player with no voice box, who had to talk through a machine.

I hit Sandrella’s in Anaheim, because it was across the street from a favorite restaurant of my family’s. After two smoking bars, I wanted to find one with no smoking. Sandrella’s is a topless joint, where the dancers do double-duty as waitresses and bartenders. Because the city tends to scrutinize strip clubs closely in any city, I was convinced Sandrella’s wouldn’t have a single waft of smoke.

Wrong.

Almost everyone was smoking at Sandrella’s, including the dancer/bartender. And if you were out of smokes, a cigarette dispenser was handy, at $4.20 a pack. I felt like an idiot, but I asked anyway: “Is it OK to smoke in here?” The dancer/bartender responded by pushing me an ashtray.

“Don’t tell anyone, because you’re not supposed to smoke here,” a dancer said. “But hey, we’re here to be happy, right?”

I tried Peg’s Junction in Buena Park because my wife and I had once ordered lunch to go there. Peg’s no longer serves food, though it does provide menus for the IHOP next door.

Inside, it was Puff City. Everybody was smoking. And like the first three places I’d gone, ashtrays were provided for customer convenience.

My final stop for the night was the piano bar at the Hilton, next to the Anaheim Convention Center. I’d enjoyed evenings there with friends but never paid attention whether it permitted smoking.

Thumbs up, Hilton.

When I asked, a waitress politely explained, “There’s a state law that bans smoking.”

They should all be like that.

Peggy Clem, owner of Peg’s Junction, was cordial when I confronted her the next day. She doesn’t permit smoking, she said. But with 90% of her customers smokers, she doesn’t enforce her own ban or the state’s. She provides ashtrays, she said, because when she didn’t customers just made a mess of the floor.

But interestingly, Clem said she understands the reasons behind the ban: “We all know smoking is bad for you.” She’s trying to quit herself but says it’s hard.

I sympathize with her dilemma. But we just don’t get to choose which laws we want to obey. At least, we shouldn’t.

We need to let someone like Mike Doyle and his Revere House know it will be a little less revered until he learns the law is the law--for all of us. And if he says he can’t do anything about his customers, maybe somebody else with courage will.

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Jerry Hicks’ column appears Monday and Thursday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling (714) 564-1049 or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com.