Starr Of Smoking Ban?

If you want something done right in Philadelphia, you usually have to go outside City Hall to find someone who can do it. The smoking ban is no exception. City Hall has failed to pass the ban approximately 400 times in the past year, even without Rick Mariano there to muck things up.

Enter, of course, Stephen Starr, as Michael Klein reports today is going smoke-free at Alma de Cuba. The restaurateur will then decide in 90 days whether to take all 12 of his popular bars/restaurants smoke free. (The chain-smoking sorority girls at Penn would be pissed!)

Starr says his management team thinks this will increase business, and obviously this will be good test. He also says he spends about $5,000 a year on ashtrays at each location, which makes me want to go smoke at Jones, since maybe I can run off with a solid platinum ashtray.

But, still: Allowing a restaurant owner to decide for himself whether to take his place smoke-free or not? Gasp! What a concept.

Inqlings | No smoke at Starr’s hot spot [Inquirer]
Archives: Smoking Ban
Photo by Pål Berge, licensed with Creative Commons