SEABROOK - The days of smoking a cigarette over a cup of coffee or a beer in New Hampshire restaurants and lounges are coming to an end.
A bill prohibiting smoking in New Hampshire eateries cleared its last legislative hurdle last week and, after paperwork is complete, is headed to Gov. John Lynch.
Lynch's press secretary, Collin Manning, said there's no question what Lynch will do when the bill gets to his desk.
"Oh, he's going to sign the bill," Manning said.
The law will go into effect 90 days later, giving reluctant restaurant owners a final smoke-filled summer.
At Eastman's in Seabrook, owner Merrilee Eastman Preston has already banned smoking.
"I changed it myself at the beginning of the year," she said. "The entire inside of the restaurant is already smoke-free."
Preston believes she will be allowed to keep an outside smoking area on the restaurant's harborside deck. She said over the years, she's had only one complaint about smoking on the deck.
Preston said most of her staff are nonsmokers and she hasn't lost a smoking customer because of the ban.
Bill Moody, general manager of Master McGrath on Route 107, said he supports the ban but worries the law will hurt independent restaurants like his, which now enjoy an advantage over smoke-free eateries in Massachusetts and Maine.
"I'm all for protecting my employees' health, but protecting their jobs is important, too," he said. "People from Newburyport and Amesbury like to come up here, have a cigar with their eggs Benedict. Without any smoking, this could hurt business."
Moody had hoped the law would be amended to allow an inside smoking area where no food would be served.
"I was going to build a sort of greenhouse off the side of the restaurant with double doors that had a smoke-eater in between," Moody said. "That way, a customer could have gone in the room, had a cigar or a cigarette, maybe watched something on TV, then come back out."
Now, smokers will have to smoke in the parking lot. Moody worries some might walk away without paying their tab.
"Or they could be trying to bring liquor out there, which isn't allowed," he said.
Bruce Brown, owner of Brown's Lobster Pound, believes the high cost of lobsters has had a greater effect on business than the new law will.
A bill prohibiting smoking in New Hampshire eateries cleared its last legislative hurdle last week and, after paperwork is complete, is headed to Gov. John Lynch.
Lynch's press secretary, Collin Manning, said there's no question what Lynch will do when the bill gets to his desk.
"Oh, he's going to sign the bill," Manning said.
The law will go into effect 90 days later, giving reluctant restaurant owners a final smoke-filled summer.
At Eastman's in Seabrook, owner Merrilee Eastman Preston has already banned smoking.
"I changed it myself at the beginning of the year," she said. "The entire inside of the restaurant is already smoke-free."
Preston believes she will be allowed to keep an outside smoking area on the restaurant's harborside deck. She said over the years, she's had only one complaint about smoking on the deck.
Preston said most of her staff are nonsmokers and she hasn't lost a smoking customer because of the ban.
Bill Moody, general manager of Master McGrath on Route 107, said he supports the ban but worries the law will hurt independent restaurants like his, which now enjoy an advantage over smoke-free eateries in Massachusetts and Maine.
"I'm all for protecting my employees' health, but protecting their jobs is important, too," he said. "People from Newburyport and Amesbury like to come up here, have a cigar with their eggs Benedict. Without any smoking, this could hurt business."
Moody had hoped the law would be amended to allow an inside smoking area where no food would be served.
"I was going to build a sort of greenhouse off the side of the restaurant with double doors that had a smoke-eater in between," Moody said. "That way, a customer could have gone in the room, had a cigar or a cigarette, maybe watched something on TV, then come back out."
Now, smokers will have to smoke in the parking lot. Moody worries some might walk away without paying their tab.
"Or they could be trying to bring liquor out there, which isn't allowed," he said.
Bruce Brown, owner of Brown's Lobster Pound, believes the high cost of lobsters has had a greater effect on business than the new law will.
"I suppose the new law could have a small detrimental impact, but that's the way things are going these days," Brown said.
One of the bill's sponsors, state Sen. Lou D'Allesandro, believes most restaurants are prepared to cooperate with the law.
"The restaurant owners know most of the people in the state want it," he said. "The University of New Hampshire did a poll, which showed 80 percent of the people want smoke-free restaurants."
He said the law will also save restaurants money.
"They don't have to spend the money on electricity to run their expensive ventilation systems or worry about fire breaking out in trash barrels," D'Allesandro said.
Smoking will still be allowed at private events at social and religious clubs and at bingo games and other public events at those clubs if smoking areas are segregated from nonsmoking areas.
New Hampshire laws already prohibit smoking in all public buildings, offices and work places, except in segregated smoking areas. The state also forbids smoking in schools, child-care agencies, hospitals, grocery stores, elevators, buses, tramways and gondolas.
Last year, a ban on restaurant smoking fell one vote short in the Republican-controlled Senate. After Democrats gained control of the Legislature last November, the ban sailed through the Senate early in the session and was approved overwhelmingly by the House last week.
New Hampshire is the last New England state to prohibit smoking in restaurants.
John Archard, tobacco enforcement coordinator for the Maine attorney general's office, said Maine had little trouble implementing the ban when it was passed a few years ago, and the law survived a Supreme Court challenge.
After learning New Hampshire is poised to join the club, Archard said nonsmokers won't be the only ones who will be happy.
"I'm sure the Maine businessmen along the border will be pleased to hear that," he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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