Some strip clubs allow smoking despite ban

Owners of PT’s Show club on West Evans Avenue in Denver, use the club’s sign Friday to let patrons know that smoking is allowed inside. Several strip clubs in the metro area are claiming that they qualify for the cigar-bar exemption. The state ban took effect July 1. By Matt McClain/Rocky Mountain News

There was no shortage of ashtrays, matches and clouds of smoke at PT’s Showclub this week as topless women danced on stages inside the club.

Turns out, at least three large metro-area strip clubs still allow smoking nearly one month after the statewide smoking ban began.

The billboard above the entrance to PT’s advertises, “Still Smoking After All These Years . . .”

“We are considered a cigar bar as well,” said Daniel Fairbanks, director of PT’s at 1601 W. Evans Ave.

Cigar bars are exempt from the smoking ban. To qualify as one,a business needs to prove at least 5 percent or $50,000 of its revenue came from the sale of tobacco products during the year ending Dec. 31, 2005, according to the “Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act” passed by state lawmakers earlier this year. But a state representative who voted against the smoking ban said he’d “be real surprised if any strip club did” sell enough tobacco products last year to qualify as a cigar bar.

“They’re probably trying to create a loophole that doesn’t exist,” said Rep. Paul Weissmann, D-Louisville.

He encouraged law enforcement agencies to investigate.

At the downtown Diamond Cabaret, there were ashtrays and matches galore on tables. Same with Glendale’s Shotgun Willie’s, 490 S. Colorado Blvd., where patrons also were lighting up Friday. Business there has increased in the last month,according to manager Karl Brewick.

“People walk in and are actually pretty elated they can smoke,” he said. “They’re shocked, but they’re happy.” Brewick’s message for smokers: “If they want to smoke and see beautiful women, come here.”

Both bars are claiming cigar bar status.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the spectrum, other metro-area bar owners met Friday morning at Billy’s Inn, 4403 Lowell Blvd., where they outlined how badly the smoking ban has hurt their businesses.

The bar’s owner, Jim Von- Feldt, cried foul that some places claim to have found loop-holes in the law.

“Last week I read in a newspaper about how well the smoking ban is going and how everyone is complying with the law, and everything is just honky-dory, they’re saying,” VonFeldt said.

“That’s not, true. That is not true. My personal income is down right now 35.14 percent,” he said. “There’s absolutely no way I can survive making that kind of money.”

And for others, it’s worse.

VonFeldt said he’s heard of bar owners whose income has gone down 60 percent.

Myron Melnick, owner of the Zephyr Lounge in Aurora, said his business has seen a 15 percent decline in revenue since the July 1 ban and has had to hire a security guard to patrol the outside of his bar.

In the last month, there’s been complaints of loitering, a woman had her purse stolen and there’s been a knife fight,Melnick said. He blames all of it because his customers have to smoke outside.

“We’ve become police officers,” VonFeldt said.

The law bans smoking at bars, restaurants and most other workplaces. The exemptions are casinos, airport smoking concessions and cigar bars.

“As far as I know, we haven’t issued a citation yet,” said Detective John White, a Denver police spokesman.

But that doesn’t mean people have not been warned by police for breaking the new law. White said it’s up to the officer’s discretion whether to issue a ticket or just inform people that smoking in most places is now illegal. Since the law is new, authorities are still trying to figure out how to enforce it, said Gene Hook, an environmental scientist with the Denver Department of Environmental Health.

Police are the primary enforcers, but Hook’s department will investigate more complicated cases. For example, his department would investigate whether businesses have met the requirements to be considered a cigar bar, Hook said.

For now, VonFeldt is asking other bar owners to send a letter to the governor like he did, asking for “a hardshipexemption.”

“I’ll give you the fax number, and you start sending your information right directly to the governor,” he said. “If we can’t can get action anywhere else, let’s do it through the governor. Inundate his e-mail; inundate his fax machine. Just bury him in paperwork.”

But that might not make a difference, a spokesman for Gov. Bill Owens said.

“There is no provision in the law that gives the governor the power to grant an exemption,” said Dan Hopkins, Owens’ spokesman. “That’s simply not possible under the law.”

Unlike some bars, restaurants like the Cherry Cricket have transitioned smoothly to a non-smoking environment, and their customers like it.

“A lot of people when they come here say, ‘Wow, it doesn’t smell like smoke anymore,’” said Antonio Gorjoux, kitchen manager at the Cherry Cricket.