Smoking Ban OK’d

Gov. Sonny Perdue has given Georgia restaurateurs an ultimatum: Choose between smokers or kids.

Under a new state law signed by Perdue on Monday, as of July 1, restaurants throughout the state that allow smoking cannot admit children under 18, and vice versa.

Brian Maloof, general manager of Manuel’s Tavern and a vocal critic of various smoking bans proposed over the years, says he’s pleased with the new law. “If a law was inevitable, at least it allows restaurant owners to make the choice of what’s right for their business,” he says. “It’s a compromise we can live with.”

Maloof says the decision to ban children from his popular watering hole and restaurant in Virginia-Highland was an easy one. Manuel’s only began to allow kids in the early ’80s.

Likewise, John Searson, co-owner of the comically smoky EARL in East Atlanta, says he’ll likely opt to keep out the young’uns.

“I always figured if you don’t like the smoke, go find another bar,” he says.

Actually, folks like Maloof and Searson have a third option under the new law: Smoking can be restricted to a separately ventilated, enclosed room. Since a new ventilation system can cost up to $50,000, that alternative is seen as prohibitively expensive for most restaurants.

The statewide smoking ban does not affect bars and, says American Cancer Society lobbyist Andy Lord, it can be seen as a boon to restaurants in places like unincorporated Gwinnett County that are already under a local smoking ban.

“This law levels the playing filed,” Lord says.??






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