The 74th Street Ale House opened in 1991 as a smoking bar. “When we first opened 74th Street, it was an interesting situation,” Jeff recalls. “The person who introduced my business partner and myself was in the music industry in town. His wife was the manager of Alice in Chains. He worked for Capricorn records at that time. They were constantly bringing in musicians, filling the place up...on opening night, Nirvana was there, Alice in Chains was there, Pearl Jam was there. It was packed with people. All of them at that time were chain smokers.”
After Jeff opened The Hilltop as a non-smoking bar in Queen Anne, customers started voicing their desire for 74th Street to be smoke free as well. “We talked about it with our regular client base, and there were maybe six people that were against it, but most of the feedback was excellent.” The 74th Street Ale House went smoke free in 1995.
Financial impact
“We were a little worried about what going smoke free might do because 74th Street had been long established as a smoking place. Several people left, but business went up by 10–20% immediately. It was just a huge leap, and it’s never slowed down.”
Employees’ views
“The employees were all in favor of the switch, and most of them are smokers. We just put up a little awning outside and said, ‘This is your smoking section, you gotta go out.’”
Other factors
Jeff thought they might take a hit on the decision, but they didn’t.
“It was worth it, just for the overall health of everybody in the place.
Being in a sealed can with chain-smokers isn’t good for anybody.”
“Everything [food and drink revenues] went up.We keep track of our daily sales and records and sub-categorize it. I can attribute part of the escalation in the revenue to the switch.”
—Jeff
“Even a lot of our clients who are smokers, they like it better. They don’t feel inconvenienced at all.”
—Jeff
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