Just to throw in my (smoker's) two cents' worth, there are a fair number of restaurants in the Columbus, OH area that are smoke-free, voluntarily. At this stage, it's easier to argue for legislation banning smoking in restaurants because it is still difficult in most cities to find a place that does it voluntarily. But I think, based on the numbers of restaurants that go smoke-free as time goes on, ten years down the road the market would have sorted things out without having to ban smoking everywhere. Sometimes, for me (oh, what a dirty, dirty addict I am) and for the other smokers I know, smoking is an important part of the dining experience. When you finish your meal, sometimes it's just nice to smoke, particularly if you're eating at, say, Tee Jaye's at 3am after a shift (or a visit to the bar). Hey, the food's not that great, so you've gotta make up for it somehow, eh? So I suppose, in short, that my feeling is that the legislation is a little overboard. Perhaps some encouragement in the form of a smoking tax to be paid by restaurants that want to allow smoking, much as they pay for liquor licenses, would be more appropriate and push the pendulum further towards smoke-free while still allowing cigarettes in a few places.
