By Jim Smith
WEST YARMOUTH, Mass. — Bar profits are down in the mid-Cape Cod area in the aftermath of a smoking ban that took effect during the first week of April in the towns of Barnstable, Yarmouth and Dennis.
"Some of our long-time customers who enjoyed a smoke with their drink haven’t been back," said manager Frank Fitzpatrick of Molly’s Pub and Restaurant on busy Rte. 28 in West Yarmouth. "The restaurant’s doing fine, but in the short run this ban is really hurting our pub business."
Fitzpatrick, a Dublin native, expects that the hordes of tourists who will be arriving on Cape Cod this summer will be in for a rude awakening when they are told to step outside if they want to smoke. "A lot of the Irish who come over here enjoy a cigarette with their pints and dart games — they won’t be too happy with this," he said.
According to Fitzpatrick and other restaurateurs on the Cape, some former customers are driving extra miles to Harwich, a town on the lower Cape, where a smoking ban has not yet gone into effect.
The Claddagh Tavern in West Harwich is attracting increasing numbers of mid-Cape residents willing to travel the extra distance in order to enjoy a smoke with their drinks.
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Jack Connell, owner of the Claddagh, said that he expects the smoking ban to be in effect in his town by mid-June. Until then, he will be serving many former patrons of mid-Cape bars affected by the ban.
"This ban is terrible for the bar business," he said. "It will probably croak the tourist business this summer."
Connell’s wife, Eileen, whose ancestors are from County Kerry, said that owners may consider filing a class-action lawsuit against the towns.
"Outlawing a legal substance in a public place is a violation of our civil rights," she said.
She said that she and other proprietors throughout the Cape have spent thousands of dollars in recent years in futile attempts to please tobacco-control proponents.
"We’ve spent large amounts of money ventilating the tavern, and we even had a smoke engineer in here," she said.
The ban now has some owners scurrying to add decks to their premises, a solution that might alleviate some of the inconveniences during the busy tourist season.
For some owners, however, that option would likely involve costly and drawn-out hearings before town boards that are often reluctant to grant special permits or variances.
For now, patrons up and down Rte. 28 and in Hyannis village are puffing away at front and rear entrances to popular eating and drinking establishments, a situation that will become more pronounced as the busy summer season approaches.
"This whole thing is ridiculous — it’s crazy," said Joe Hernon of Norwood as he stood smoking in the chilly air outside the entrance to the Irish Village Saturday night.
Inside, owner Jack Hynes said that he empathized with those who are forced to go outside for a smoke.
"It’s an inconvenience for a lot of people, and we’ve had a few people cancel their reservations because of it," he said about the smoking ban.
Hynes may ask Yarmouth town officials to grant him a variance permitting him to add a deck with an awning, but that process could be a long one.
Active enforcement of the ban will begin soon throughout the Cape, further irritating pub owners who see the ban as an elitist assault on the bar culture and working class.
An article in the Cape Cod Times last month featured a cigar bar in Hyannis, where a largely well-to-do clientele can still puff on expensive cigars while sitting on leather easy chairs and drinking fine wines and fancy liqueurs. The business is exempt from the smoking ban because its profits are derived primarily from the sale of the tobacco products.
And down the road from Molly’s on Rte. 28 smoking is permitted at the Loyal Order of Moose Hall, a private club that was granted a variance by the Yarmouth town officials.
Fitzpatrick believes that the Moose exemption is "discriminatory" and unfair to working-class bar patrons who are forced to mill around with cigarettes in hand at pub entrances and back doors.
Enforcement of the ban is now in the hands of Garrett Linnehan of Centreville, a former Miami Beach detective and private investigator. Linnehan was recently hired as Barnstable County’s first tobacco-control compliance officer at a salary of $40,000.
Patrons caught smoking can be fined $50 for each offense under town of Barnstable regulations, while bar owners can be fined up to $100 for each offense.