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Home > What's New > Smoke 'Em (Elsewhere) If You Got 'Em
Smoke 'Em (Elsewhere) If You Got 'Em
Posted: Wednesday, August 30, 2006
By Alejandro Benes
"Washington State Law prohibits smoking within 25 feet of an entrance, window or air intake vent. Thank you for not smoking."
This has been the law in the state of Washington since December of last year and the sign is on the wall at the revolving door of my hotel. I'm attending the annual convention of the Certified Angus Beef Association. My motto: Beef, it's what's for dinner before you light up. Except in Seattle.
On this visit, I've noticed an increased number of panhandlers on the streets of Belltown. Is there a correlation to the smoking ban? I think so. Of course, they just might be outside because it's not raining this weekend. But that would make too much sense. It's gotta be the no-smoking law.
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The disappointment, on a personal level, stems from the fact that Seattle has always been one of my favorite destinations and always very welcoming, if expensive (due to high tobacco taxes), to cigar smokers. Every trip here has included, usually on the first night, dinner at El Gaucho, which I reviewed for Cigar Aficionado in 1998 (you can search it on the website). On my first night this visit, I've returned to what today would be the scene of the crime if I did light up the Black Pearl I've got in the pocket of my guayabera. I am dining at the bar at El Gaucho. I start with a Zaya, dark rum, on two rocks. The bartender is telling me that the anti-smoking ordinance has hurt his tips by about 35 percent, and that's the story all over town. The top-shelf booze is selling more slowly. Cigar smokers, being a celebratory lot, aren't coming in as often or aren't ordering the big drinks to go with the big smokes. Before I order dinner, I walk back to the cigar lounge -- a neon sign in red saying "Cigars" with an arrow still points the way -- and it is empty. A shrine now, the lounge is as I remember it, but devoid of patrons finishing a great night on the town. The room still has two humidors and El Gaucho still sells and stores cigars, but no one is enjoying them here.
Paul Mackay, an icon of Seattle's hospitality scene and the owner of El Gaucho, told me that the law has some "loopholes."
"The law wasn't written very well." Mackay said, noting that the code allows for smoking in 25 percent of a hotel's rooms. Now, he has an inn above his restaurant and he's got his hopes up. Well, he's got some hopes. "We're looking into making the old cigar room private," Mackay explained.
I return to the bar and order a Certified Angus Beef® Prime Frenched Rib Chop, medium-rare, with well-done hash browns on the side and a glass of Turley Juvenile Zinfandel. At El Gaucho, the meal is always followed by a plate of fruit, blue cheese and dates. I'm happy, but my night out is interrupted by having to leave early to smoke my cigar on a walk back to the hotel. Outside. These days, the only thing being smoked inside in Seattle is salmon.
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