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TIiE NEW YORK TIMES METRO SUNDAY, Rest~urthits Complying On Smoking Few Violations Logged In Law's First 6 Weeks By THOMAS J. LUECK - Despite angry protests by some owners ;that it is costing them business, most restaurants in New York City are abiding by a six-week-old ban on smoking, leaving the dining rooms of large restaurants and taverns almost smoke-free. ~ city's Commissioner of Health, Dr. Ma t Hamburg, said that inspectors 'had und most restaurants complying with the new law. Tim Zagat, publisher of the Zagat Survey, said he had visited 500 New York City restaurants since the law took effect and found "virtually no viola- tions in dining rooms." And spot checks of 60 SoHo, midtown, and Upper West Side restaurants last week found most of them abiding by the law, which applies to restaurants with 35 or more seats. Almost all had posted the : required "No Smoking" signs in their din- ing rooms, rearranged furniture so that dining room tables were at least six feet from bar areas, and advised people who started to smoke to stop. But the visits also confirmed reports by many in the industry that violations were common in restaurant bars, where smok- ing is restricted but not banned and where the law is either difficult to understand or is ignored. . Awo restaurant owners who did al- low smoking in dining rooms made no pretense of concealing the violations, say- ing instead that they were disobeying the law out of principle. "People ask to smoke, and I tell them we have an illegal smoking room in the.backr:" said Gerard Dis, manager of Chez Suzette, a ground-floor restaurant on West 46th Street (Restaurant Row). Chez Suzette is one of the first testau- rants to provoke a smoking inspection by the Health Department under the new law. After receiving two complaints from pa- .trons, Health Department officials. ,visited Mr. Dis on Thursday and brdered him to ban smoking throughout the restaurant, although ithey did not issue a summons. ~ Mr. Dis is defiant, saying that he ihas begun asking customers to con- tribute money so he can pay what- ever fines are levied. Under the new law, fines are $200, $500 and $1,000 .respectively for the first, second and 'third offenses. "I'm waiting for a summons," he said. "When the city starts paying my rent, it can tell me how to run my :business." i But on the whole, city officials ; said, the early signs of compliance are encouraging. "We would be kidding ourselves to think that we would see a 100 percent change in behavior on Day One," Dr. Hamburg said. "But most people are trying to comply." She said that of 451 restaurant inspections made since the law took. effect, 103 uncovered violations of the smoking ban. But she pointed out. that 87 percent of those violations resulted from failure to display "No Smoking" signs and that• only 16 percent were because of people Ismoking. Still, the law has clearly produced confusion. Dr. Hamburg, whose staff Ihas so far issued only preliminary -regulations for enforcing the smok- 'ing ban, said that final regulations ,wouid be published Within two weeks, to "clarify some areas of vagueness." Many restaurant owners said the most confusing part of the law gov- erns smoking in bar areas and gate. dens. Smoking is allowed in bars, but only under certain conditions. One is that the bar not' doubie as the main waiting area for diners: Several res- taurant owners complained that they were unsure about what consti- tuted a main waiting area, when customers could wait outside, in doorways or elsewhere. Another rule is that the bar be at least six feet froni dining room seats, but owners say it is difficult to keep smokers from wandering. The law allows smoking in restau- rant gardens, unless they are cov- ered by a roof, but restricts it to a contiguous area of no more than 25 Continued on Page 38 Undefined bar areas seerri to be the trouble spots. MAY 21, 1995 percent of the garden. Although al- most all owners said they were abid- ing by the 25 percent limitation, some said they were not requiring smokers to sit in a contiguous arpa. "That seems reasonable to me," said Steve Patrone, the captain of waiters at Barbetta, on Restaurant Row, which has a large garden. Smokers are allowed to light up in a quarter of the garden's seats, but the seats are not within a contiguous area. "But I don't know; " he said. "Will this get us into trouble?" Other restaurants that appeared• to be violating the smoking law in- cluded Landmark Tavern, at 11th• Avenue and 46th Street in •Manhat- tan, where smoking was allowed in a bar and dining area that appeared to exceed the stated 15 percent of the restaurant's total seating capacity. At the Cupping Room in SoHo, as at several other restaurants, the bar area appeared to be the only waiting: area for diners. And at the Lucky Strike in SoHo, as at Chez Suzette, the violations were less subtle. "We have too large a clientele to tell them not to smoke," said Sammy Martinez, Luclty Strike's general manager, who said 75 percent of his customers were smokers and could light up wherever they chose. The Department of Health said it had been receiving an average of 19 complaints a day about violations of the smoking law, in both restaurants and other public buildings. That is three times as many complaints as it received last year under the city's previous smoking law, adopted in 1988, which allowed smoking in res- taurants, but only in bars and desig- nated smoking areas. The department's records show that the largest number of com- plaints against restaurants have come from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and the West Village and part of the East Side in Manhattan. Health Department officials have so far been concentrating on identi- fying restaurants that •are in viola tion and informing the owners, they said, instead, of issuing summonses and fines. No fines. have yet been levied. Sam Friedman, a department spokesman, said health officials had adopted a policy of calling and writ ing to restaurants identified in com- plaints but taking no other action for two weeks. If a complaint is received after•the two weeks, he said, inspec- tors were sent to the restaurant to j,"n •k::.nt'dy

(Cont'd) 0 issue summonses and levy fines. Most of the complaints~received so far - 65 percent - have charged restaurants with allowing smoking in dining rooms, the department said. But in a second enforcement pro• cedure, in which health inspectors routinely visit restaurants to look for a variety of violations - including locked fire escapes and dirty kitch- ens - few instances of people smok- ing in dining areas have been found. Despite what Dr. Hamburg called "encouraging early results" with the new law, the department is moving into a"second stage of enforce- ment," she said. "In a spirit of fairness and collegi- ality, we have have been working with and warning restaurateurs," she said. "The results have been good, but you are now going to see more summonses and fines for those who don't comply." 0