Tobacco Documents Online

THE NEW YORK Tr.tifES METRO ~'EDNESDAY, 1fA Y;t1. :9'-'= ABOUT NEW YORK Michael T. Kaufman EnouSmokers Find a Friend • N the mcnth that Local Law 5 has been in effect. smok- ers. who were its target,:;ave been finding sanctuary, solldar:t}• and solace in Drake's Drum. Like the per- secuted once hounded :nro catacombs. thev huddle in the restaurant on Seccnd Avenue at 90th Street. puffing away and castigat:ng Lhe smoke-free air act as an unconsctor.a- ble tntris:cn on personal liberties and on humanktnd's God-gtven r:g`t, since Eden, to choose its own poison. "Enoug'::s enough is enough already," said Jimmy Duke, the owner. explatntng tas hatred for the bureau- cratic dLcta:es that led him to evade the ban on smoking in restaura:::s and turn tae place he has owned since 1968 into a refuge for smokers and those of their rtonsmoktng cohorts wta:ng to brave secondhand fumes for frtend- shtp, charm and company. Because the law applies only to establts`:-en:s with 35 or more seats. Mr. Duke has avoided its l;;rtsd:ctton by reeuc:ng the capacity of the dining room. = rowtng eut more than three dozen chairs and keepine precisely 34. At the bar. -egulars. augmented by some newcom- ers. were happ:!y inhaling w•htie they comoltmented.Mr. Duke for h:s caen-m:r.ded hospitality while condemning what they ccnstderee to be outra¢es of antismoking zeal• otry. "At Yankee Stadium and Shea, they are throwing people out for smoking," said Tom Klapak, a constr uc• non supervtsor. "For crying out loud. I used to go to Ya:- kee games, but I'm not going anymore. I guess 1'1l iust have to wait until Stetnbrenner moves the team to `ew Jersey, where they haven't banned smoking yet." S l Si E JACOBS. a freelance business wrtter. said: "It's ridtculous. [ can't go into a diner and smoxe over a cup of coffee like I used to iust a month agc Diesel trucks are spewing ex,haust up and down the street while I am being made to feel like a criminal for dotng what is perfectly legal. I pay my taxes. I'm a good cit:zcn and, you know, my mother knows I smoke." Al Robbins, the bartender, said that the night before a customer had told him she had been told by a Park Ranger to leave Central Park for smoking. "Can you ae• lieve it? tb'hat's next?" In fact, a Parks Department spokesman, 1. D. La- Continued on Page B3 'Enough Already': Smokers ~`ind a Friend Cort:r.ued From Page 81 Rock, said this seemed an exaggera- tion. He sa:c that as applied to parks. the law bans smoking only tn play- grounds and buildings. He added that no one has been arrested or is- sued a summons for illegal smoking in parks since the law went into ef- fect. Still. given the level of defen- siveness in Drake's Drum, it was easy to see how the patrons could be- lieve the report. They are ready to believe any allegation of indignities imposed on smokers. Mr. Duke, the man who has cham- pioned these people, does not smoke. "I just got fed up, with all sorts of bureaucrats sttcking their noses into my business." he said, explaining his inottvatton. "I run a pub. I'm not a psychologtsL I don't do behavior modification." He went on to sav that the old svs- tem of having smoking and non- smoktng sections seemed highly sat- isfactory. "People should be free to settle things on thetr own. We never had a serious fight. Sometimes somebody moved from one end of the bar to another. Sometimes, somebody just put out their ciga- rette. Why should bureaucrats get involved?" M R. DUKE said one example ofunnecessary municipal meddling related to the ta- bles he keeps outside on the side- walk "I pay the city $3,000 a year to use that space," he said. "I have 24 seats out there on Second Avenue. You realize it is still perfectly legal to smoke while walking or standing on the street. But what about situng? "The new law says that iri such - outdoor cafes, only 25 percent of the customers can smoke. So what am I supposed to do when more than six customers out there are smoking? Maybe I should tell them take turns puffing, or to stand up and pretend they are pedestrians." Mr. Duke, a former rugby player from Livernool. said he was alarmed the first time he heard about the leg:aiation. "I could see w•hat was comtng," he said. "I was pretty sure that tf I did nothing and accepted the ban, I'd be out of business in three months. You know the 2S percent of the public that smokes buys a considerable amount of the alcoholic drinks sold. So I scaled down and redid the place. I threw out the chairs, put in a new venttlator. It cost about $40,000. I hired a top chef and upgraded the menu so we could charge a bit more to make up for the smaller room. "We also changed the name a lit- tle, from ]ust Drake's Drum to Drake's Drum - The Smoke Inn. We put signs in the window and handed out fliers explaining what we were doing." So, has the strategy worked? "It's still too early to tell," said the pub keeper, looking at his customers who were happily smoking and eating, smoking and drinking, smoking and spending.