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Home > What's New > San Francisco Oasis Allows Cigar Smoking
Posted June 18, 2001, 3:30 p.m. e.s.t.
More than three years ago, California's legislature effectively ended smoking in the state's bars and restaurants when it concluded that "smoking in the workplace is a matter of statewide interest and concern." The law that was passed, California Labor Code Section 6404.5, prohibited smoking in "all enclosed places of employment" in the state.
The law was written to halt employee exposure to smoke. The law's written goal was "to reduce employee exposure to environmental tobacco smoke to a level that will prevent anything other than insignificantly harmful effects to exposed employees."
The ban took effect on January 1, 1998. The result is that in cities like San Francisco, it's all but impossible to find a place where you can enjoy a cigar. Most of the city's hotel lobbies, bars and restaurants are now no-smoking zones.
With, perhaps, one exception. Five months after the ban went into effect, a group of friends opened a cigar bar in San Francisco's financial district. They named the place 850, as its address was 850 Montgomery Street. To avoid the problem of exposing employees to smoke, they decided that the bar would have no employees at all -- only owners.
"Well, if we all get together as owners, there's no reason we can't [open a bar] ourselves and allow smoking," Mark Yablun, one of the owners of 850, remembers one of his partners saying when they heard the law was coming.
Yablun says he and his partners recognized the law was founded on workplace safety concerns, so if 850 had no employees, then employee exposure would not be an issue. So, 850 is still legal three years after it opened, because the only people who work there are its owners, which now number 10. It is thought to be the only full-service cigar bar in the city.
850 has never had a problem with allowing cigar smoking. The only attention 850 has received is from the state Department of Health and the Alcohol Beverage Control Board.
"They just wanted to make sure we were living up to our food and bar licenses, and that kind of stuff," Yablun explained.
850 has a full bar and serves a limited buffet for $5. There is music some nights, mostly on weekends, and the back room has a pool table. The humidor in the front room has a reasonably good selection of premium smokes, priced generally from $8 to $15. Yablun said that cigar sales comprise 10 to 15 percent of the bar's business.
850 is located a couple of blocks north of the TransAmerica Tower. It's open Tuesday through Saturday. Call (415) 291-0850 for more information.
--Alejandro Benes
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