A clutch of leading London restaurateurs are thinking of turning their restaurants into proprietary clubs, which are company-owned but require a membership fee, so their customers can continue lighting up.
Conran Restaurants is considering this route for its recently opened Floridita. This is themed around Cuban culture, of which cigars form an intrinsic part.
A spokeswoman said the restaurant's Bar Constante already ran a £200-a-year membership scheme, but clearly any extension would be pitched much lower.
She added that the approach taken by other Conran restaurants - of which some are already completely non-smoking - would be decided individually when the smoking ban takes effect by the end of 2007.
Richard Shepherd, owner of Shepherd's and Langan's Brasserie, was a keen advocate of this tactic - and he told Caterer that Lindsay House proprietor Richard Corrigan shared his view.
Shepherd, who is expected to open a site in Dublin next year, said takings in that city's restaurants had slumped by 10% since the smoking ban was introduced in March, and he expected many would be broke by the New Year.
But his main complaint was that "our freedom of choice is being taken away." He railed against the hypocrisy of a nanny state that did not ban the sale of cigarettes but passed the buck back to the trade.
"This is my money, my investment, my front room and my prerogative," he said. "I can see a time when I am only allowed to serve three glasses of wine, but not four."
Chain restaurants seemed less likely to take this option. Nando's reckoned converting its fried chicken restaurants into private members' clubs would not suit its casual atmosphere and would send out the wrong message to customers.
Martin Couchman, deputy chief executive of the British Hospitality Association, said that most restaurants would not become proprietary clubs.
"Of course, if you did this, then customers wouldn't be able to walk into the restaurant off the street. I don't know what effect this would have on business."
Couchman added that he thought it would be almost impossible for big restaurant chains to take this route.
Many other top restaurateurs and chefs look likely to uphold the ban on smoking in places where food is served. Those who supported Caterer's Stub out Smoking campaign included Gordon Ramsay, Tom Aikens, Bruce Poole and Christian Delteil, managing director of the Bank Restaurant Group.
And ground-breaking chef Heston Blumenthal is set to chuck out the butts at his Fat Duck restaurant in Bray, Berkshire, from the New Year.
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Guest Editor
Heston Blumenthal |
Editor's commentAt the Fat Duck we had problems with smoking, because it is an old building with low ceilings. Allowing smoking was having an impact on those who don't smoke, so we moved the smoking area to a small area upstairs - but this hasn't really worked. So, from January we will become a no-smoking venue, because of the increasingly high number of complaints from non-smokers. A ban on smoking will, therefore, make life easier.
In the pub, the Hind's Head, we have no smoking in the food area, but I can sympathise with pubs that are not food-driven not wanting to ban smoking."
Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 25 November 2004