Fifteen years ago, Don Thayer decided
that his Heidi's Restaurant location in
South Lake Tahoe would be entirely nonsmoking.
"My competitors said it was the best
thing we ever could have done from them,"
Thayer recalled last week. "It cost us a 10
percent decline in business."
But times change, and Thayer these days
is among the restaurant owners who are
involved in the "Clean Cuisine" program
that promotes restaurants that don't allow
smoking.
The marketing push, which kicked off
late last month, focuses heavily on the
health risks of second-hand smoke.
But backers also are talking with restaurant
owners about the financial benefits that
accrue to establishments that forbid smoking.
It's an argument that meets some skepticism
in the business.
"It's the revenue end they're concerned
about," acknowledged Mike Johnson, an
outreach manager at St. Mary's Health
System and a member of the Washoe
County Tobacco Prevention Coalition.
As he talks with restaurant owners,
Johnson said, they understand how a ban
on smoking can reduce their operating
costs.
Burned tables, linens and carpets all are
smoking-related expenses. So are the needs
to paint and clean draperies more often.
And restaurant owners understand the hassles
involved with managing separate waiting
lists for smoking and non-smoking sections
of their establishments.
Sometimes, the costs are more subtle,
Johnson said. Smokers, for instance, tend
to linger a little longer after dinner. That
might reduce the number of turns during a
busy dinner hour.
It's far more difficult, however, to track
whether a restaurant will lose customers if it
doesn't allow smoking.
"A lot of that will be influenced by the
nature of the establishment," Johnson said.
A coffee shop at which regulars gather for a
cup of java and a smoke with their morning
newspaper, for instance, probably would
face significant resistance from customers if
it banned smoking.
It's a particularly difficult sale, the tobacco
coalition has found, because the research
has focused on places such as California
where smoking has been banned at all
establishments a move that means that
no restaurant gains a competitive advantage.
Even so, Johnson notes that 68 percent
of Americans these days don't smoke a
figure that means that restaurant owners
have two nonsmoking customers for every
smoker.
Still, the experience of Thayer shows
that the question isn't always easy for
restaurant owners.
Thayer owns the City Cafe and Bakery
in Carson City and is owner and president
of the Heidi's group of restaurants in Reno,
Carson City and South Lake Tahoe.
Banning smoking at City Cafe and
Bakery wasn't difficult, Thayer said.
"Bread will absorb anything the air
including smoke. For us, it was a simple
decision for the integrity of the product."
The verdict about smoking has been a
split decision at the Heidi's locations.
The South Lake Tahoe location
where competitors picked off Thayer's customers
in the 1980s now is surrounded
by nonsmoking restaurants after California
banned all smoking in all public places.
The Carson City location, too, is completely
nonsmoking, in part because the
building doesn't allow for easy separation of
smokers and nonsmokers.
Employees of that restaurant, Thayer
said, have joined nonsmoking customers in
welcoming the change.
"You come home from work smelling
like an ashtray," he said.
The company's restaurants in Reno,
however, continue to maintain well-separated
smoking and nonsmoking sections.
Even so, Thayer said, he sees a significant
base of customers willing to seek out
restaurants that ban smoking entirely.
The Clean Cuisine campaign
The Clean Cuisine program, which seeks to
increase consumers' awareness of restaurants
that are entirely smoke-free, is based on print,
broadcast and direct-mail advertising.
The ads, in turn, seek to drive consumers to a
website www.NoTobaccoNevada.com
where they can find the names of restaurants
that don't allow smoking.
For participating restaurants, the campaign
involves Clean Cuisine door decals, logos for
use in the restaurants' own advertising and stickers
that servers can place on check folders.
The campaign was devised by KPS3, a Reno
advertising and marketing agency, for the
Washoe County Tobacco Prevention Coalition.
Members of the coalition are Saint Mary's
Health Network, Washoe County Health
Department, American Lung Association,
American Cancer Society and Health Insight.
