Voice of the Mid-Columbia | Kennewick, Pasco and Richland, Wash. |
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closeSunday, Jul. 06, 2008
Tri-City bars, taverns bouncing back after statewide smoking ban
By Ingrid Stegemoeller, Herald staff writer
Customers at The Pub in Kennewick haven't been able to smoke inside since the state instituted a ban 2 1/2 years ago.
But a smoke-free interior has its upsides.
"Now guys can come in after work and have a drink without their wives knowing because they don't smell like smoke," joked manager April Mowery.
Revenue fell for the bar in the months after the ban and angry customers vowed they wouldn't come back, she said.
But business has bounced back, and Mowery said she sees more nonsmoking customers than before the ban.
"I think people are liking it more," she said.
The same situation seems to be playing out at bars and taverns across the Tri-Cities and the state.
Numbers released by the state Department of Revenue show that bars and taverns in Washington saw a more than 20 percent increase in gross income in 2007, compared with 0.3 percent in 2006.
"We're not totally surprised because experience in other states is similar," said department spokesman Mike Gowrylow.
"Eighty-two percent of the public doesn't smoke, so if you clear out the smoke, you greatly expand your potential customer base," he said.
Tri-City establishments appear to have enjoyed a similar resurgence.
All three cities reported drops in taxable retail sales at bars and taverns from 2005 to 2006, and each experienced a gain last year.
Kennewick saw the biggest jump, at almost 36 percent. Ken Nelson, the city's director of economic development, credited the jump to a more pleasant environment for lunch.
"I do think it's had a positive impact on lunch business," he said.
Richland and Pasco rose 5 percent and 6.4 percent, respectively.
Despite Pasco's gain, taxable retail sales at bars and taverns in the city remain below the 2005 level by almost $125,000, or almost 14 percent.
The city's drinking establishments hit a peak of almost $1.5 million in taxable retail sales in 2001, according to the information from the Department of Revenue.
The biggest drop happened from 2004 to 2005, when taxable retail sales from Pasco's bars and taverns dropped almost 35 percent, from $1.37 million to $896,600.
City Manager Gary Crutchfield wasn't sure of the cause, but he surmised the Hillsboro-Kartchner Interchange changed traffic patterns near King City and affected bar business in the area.
The city did not take sides on the smoking ban issue, Crutchfield said, although he thinks residents generally like the change.
"Initially everybody's up in arms about it," Crutchfield said. "Overall, a majority of people feel it was important to our personal environments."
While the Department of Revenue did not establish a correlation between the ban and the revenue numbers, it is likely that that people are returning to their favorite places, Gowrylow said.
At The Dugout Tavern in Pasco, business was hurting just after the ban went into place, said bartender Bridget Cooper, who's worked at the bar for six years.
But regulars have returned and for the most part the tavern is doing just fine, she said.
After the ban went into effect, Longbranch Bar & Grill in Finley saw its first revenue drop since Shirley Britton became the owner in 2003.
Revenue has since gone back up, but Britton said she's had to put in a lot of effort to create a comfortable - and legal - place for her customers to use while smoking.
"I can only hope it continues," Britton said of income growth since the ban.
The ban also is a plus for nonsmoking bar employees, Mowery said.
"It's nice because I'm an ex-smoker, so it was really hard not to smoke being in a bar that was full of smoke," she said.
Revenue numbers weren't quite as positive in 2007 in some areas of the state, such as Clark County in Western Washington, where smokers can easily drive to Portland, Gowrylow said.
And the ban surely hurt some business to the point of shutting them down, he added.
But, "where there aren't alternatives, you want to hang out at your old place," he said.
Though the smoking ban didn't really affect revenue at Atomic Ale Brew Pub & Eatery in Richland - it never allowed smoking in the restaurant - the pub now has to deal with a mess of cigarette butts in its parking lot, said general manager David Acton.
"I was always against taking (smoking) away from bars" because it's an adult decision and activity, he said.
Britton agreed.
"You have to make a conscious decision to go into a bar. I can understand if it's a public place," she said, adding that she thinks there should be smoking and nonsmoking bars.
The law requires that smokers stand at least 25 feet from an open window or door while smoking, and that means standing "in the middle of the street," at Atomic Ale, Acton said.
Customers at Atomic Ale complained in the beginning, but they generally understood it wasn't the pub's fault, Acton said.
Gross income for other businesses affected by the ban didn't see such dramatic changes, according to the Department of Revenue.
Restaurants across the state saw a gross income increase of 8.7 percent in 2007 compared with 8.2 percent in 2006 and 8.5 percent in 2005.
Tri-Cities' eateries saw increases in taxable retail sales across the board in all three years.
Of the three, 2007 was the biggest jump for all: Pasco at 15.3 percent, Richland at 12.8 percent and Kennewick at 7.9 percent.
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