Bethlehem restaurant bans smoking in campaign kickoff

When a giant papier-maché cigarette was broken Monday in Starfish Brasserie, the Bethlehem restaurant joined a growing number of eating places in the Lehigh Valley that are going smoke-free.

About half of the Lehigh Valley's restaurants ban smoking. And 118 Bethlehem area eateries prohibit patrons from puffing up.

Starfish owner Dick Barrows, whose father died of lung cancer, said he and his wife had toyed with the idea for years, but decided the timing was right with a growing number of states signing on to smoke-free workplaces.

"Many people have told us that they love our bar, but they can't stand the smoke," Barrows said at a news conference where the ceremonial cigarette was broken.

Barrows, city officials and nonsmoking advocates gathered at the restaurant to make the announcement to kick off the statewide "Stomping Out Big Tobacco" campaign. The initiative calls on advocates to collect 20,000 pairs shoes to display at the state Capitol in April. The shoes symbolize the number of adults who die of tobacco-related illness in Pennsylvania each year.

Mayor John Callahan, whose mother died after an eight-year battle with emphysema, applauded the efforts.

"I think it's a very positive sign for one of our leading restaurants on Restaurant Row to become totally smoke-free," Callahan said. "It is a good policy for work sites to provide a smoke-free environment for both their employees and their patrons."

Nonsmoking advocates say the Starfish is noteworthy because it has a bar.

"Sometimes restaurants are hesitant to go smoke-free when [they have] a bar," said Merry Casey of the Coalition for a Smoke-Free Valley.

But many are leaning in that direction. The Edge, a neighbor of Barrows' brasserie, had allowed smoking in one dining room and the bar. When too many tables were left empty in the smoking room, the Edge decided in January to kick the butts out of every dining room. Patrons can smoke only at the bar, but if they want to smoke cigars, they'll have to bring their own. The restaurant stopped selling them.

"People like to sit down at the bar with some expensive brandies and $20 cigars," said Fran Mantz, Edge general manager. "They can still do that, but we ask they not do that until after 9-9:30" p.m.

In Allentown, Youell's Oyster House decided to stop the smoking in the restaurant at 22nd and Walnut streets.

"The bar use to get quite smoky, very heavy smoke," owner Christian Filipos said. "There would be 25 people at the bar, and only four would be smoking."

The Coalition for a Smoke-Free Valley conducted a survey last year about the regulation of second-hand smoke. The survey found 75 percent of the 3,000 respondents preferred no smoking in restaurants.

Nationally, smoking in public places was recently banned in several states including New Jersey. New York City is smoke-free.

The Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights of Berkeley, Calif., says the U.S. economy loses about $10 billion a year in medical costs and lost wages to second-hand smoke. Smokers miss an average of 6.16 days of work, while nonsmokers take an average of 3.86 sick days each year, according to the group.

Still, the Starfish's Barrows knows that some customers may not embrace the smoking ban. One customer has said she'll never come back, though Barrows thinks she will relent.

In the meantime, Barrows said he will continue to wear some buttons Bethlehem Area Vocational Technical students made to put inside the giant cigarette: "The only thing we smoke here is salmon."