Ban takes effect Tuesday in state where tobacco once was king
Jump to full article: The Washington Post, 2009-12-01
Author: Sandhya Somashekhar Washington Post Staff Writer
Intro: It was a gentlemen's protest: Scores of cigar-smokers filed into an upscale steakhouse in Reston on Monday night to light up their stogies over cocktails and beef Wellington and lament that the smoking police had finally come to, of all places, Virginia.
Four hundred years after John Rolfe planted the nation's first commercial tobacco in Virginia, and decades after state leaders paid homage to the crop by carving its leaves into the ceiling of the old state Senate chamber, smoking officially becomes illegal Tuesday in the state's 17,500 bars and restaurants.
Although the suit-and-tie crowd at Morton's exuded a sort of "Mad Men" cool, it wasn't entirely hard to see why some might have been glad this day has finally come. A fragrant, heavy haze rose as 150 regulars worked their way through the four cigars included with a meal organized as a last hurrah for Virginia smokers. . . .
The festivities were briefly interrupted a short time later when the fumes triggered the fire alarm.
. . .
Morton's wasn't the only restaurant marking the occasion with a bit of celebratory nostalgia. . . .
In some parts of the state, tobacco still dominates the landscape and the culture. At Wilson Brothers Barbecue in South Hill, a family-style restaurant surrounded by tobacco farms, owner Phyllis Binford said that business has suffered because of the recession and that some of her regulars have said they won't come by anymore now that they won't be able to light up.
"I think this is a bad time for this," Binford said. "My husband is 67 years old, and he's really petrified that it's going to get worse before it gets better."
Many nonsmokers, and a good number of smokers, say they are ecstatic about the ban and have their own celebrations planned. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) will be at Chadwicks in Old Town Alexandria on Tuesday afternoon to mark the occasion, and a group of nonsmoking patrons of the Palm, a dining room and bar next to the Ritz-Carlton in Tysons Corner, are hosting a soirée to celebrate the absence of cigar and cigarette smokers in the bar area.
"Most people, when they come back from the Palm, they take a shower before they go to bed, because you reek of smoke," said Michael Norton, who owns an executive search firm and often meets clients in the bar. "A lot of people who frequent the Palm are going to be very happy about this."
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