Starting today, Jesse's Restaurant and Tavern, Molly's Balloon Ltd. and Lui Lui will no longer allow their patrons to smoke and, since Wednesday, the Dirt Cowboy Cafe has prohibited smoking before 5 p.m.
Mark Milowsky, the president of Jesse's, Molly's and Lui Lui, said he implemented the non-smoking policy because of health concerns of customers and employees.
"We have been thinking of changing our policy for a number of years," Milowsky said. "We are sensitive to the needs of smokers, but with all of the new evidence of the dangers of second-hand smoke, we feel that a non-smoking policy would be in our patrons' and employees' best interests."
Until today, the three restaurants reserved about 85 percent of their seats for non-smokers.
Milowsky said he thinks the new policy may make the restaurants more inviting to people who do not like to be around second-hand smoke.
"We have been getting both negative and positive feedback," Milowsky said. "However, we think the new policy will help business, because we will gain customers who do not go to restaurants that allow smoking."
As of Wednesday, March 30, the Dirt Cowboy Cafe no longer allows customers to smoke from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
"We changed our policy for taste reasons," said Thomas Guerra, owner of the Dirt Cowboy Cafe. "We pride ourselves on providing the freshest coffee, and smoking can inhibit the taste."
The Cafe will still allow smoking at night, but only to those 18 and older.
The changes at Jesse's, Molly's Balloon, Lui Lui and the Dirt Cowboy Cafe are the lastest in the non-smoking trend set by other area restaurants over the last several years.
Peter Christian's Restaurant and Tavern and Lou's Restaurant went smoke-free nearly five years ago.
"Customers complained about the smoke," Lou's Manager Betty Merrihey said. "Business has improved since we implemented a smoke-free policy."
Five months ago, Everything But Anchovies implemented a smoke free policy to please both customers and employees, EBAs Manager Maureen Dowd said.
A number of area restaurants, including 5 Olde Nugget Alley, Panda House Chineese Restaurant, Cafe Buon Gustaio, Murphey's Tavern and the Ivy Grill at The Hanover Inn, have both smoking and non-smoking sections.
