The Caterer Blog

Hope you're sitting down because a study by the Research Institute for a Tobacco Free Society in Dublin has found an 83% reduction in air pollution in Irish pubs following the implementation of the ban there almost three years ago.

Yes, I know it's hard to believe such an outcome since the ban on setting fire to paper and dried leaves stuffed with cancer causing agents inside came in but it's true.

As well as improving all round visibility, the removal of the fugg from Irish boozers has had the direct effect of reducing the exposure of bar workers to airborne carcinogens by a staggering 80%, states the report.

All good stuff you'll agree although being an ever sceptical journalist would anyone expect anything different from a group calling itself Research Institute for a Tobacco Free Society. Erm, perhaps not.

The vast majority of pub operators in England have spent the past couple of years preparing for Sunday’s smoking ban, redefining their food offer, building shelters outside and generally having a right good clean-up.

But some landlords appear to be taking the Homer Simpson approach – bury your head in the sand and everything will work out alright in the end – to the legislation.

In the immortal words of 90's singer Alanis Morissette - who's biggest hit was famed for containing no ironic lyrics whatsoever - it is like rain on your wedding day.

Landlord Deejay Royall took over The Bush in Wigan 18 months ago and being a forward thinking sort spent thousands on renovating the boozer; turning it into a completely no smoking pub five months ahead of the ban. The idea, presumably, being to entice non-smoking punters into the pub early and keeping their custom while all the 1 July hoopla took hold.

Instead the idea became Royall's "black fly" in his chardonnay. He told the Wigan Evening Post: "Basically, we ran out of customers.

"People started to go to other pubs that hadn't introduced the smoking ban yet and then when it came in July they stopped coming in altogether."

As Alanis would wail it is exactly like "A no-smoking sign on your cigarette break," but at least Royall understands that life has a funny way of helping you out...

At the end of June, I posted a blog about Hamish Howitt, the landlord of the Happy Scots pub in Blackpool who has defiantly refused to ban smoking and is being taken to court as a result.

After we ran a news story about his case on Friday, a landlady who is in favour of the ban posted a comment on the blog and opened up a right hornet's nest.

The comments flew in over the weekend and have continued today, with some fierce opinions on both sides. Nazis have been mentioned more than once, to the disdain of one particular reader.

Join the debate here

Research published by Caterersearch's sister website Caterer.com has revealed the level of threats and actual violence suffered by hospitality employees now they have to ask customers to stop smoking.

A survey of over 5,000 hospitality workers revealed that over 40% of workers have had to ask customers to stop smoking since the smoking ban came into effect in England on 1 July.

Over 10% of workers have suffered threats or actual violence after asking customers to stop smoking.

More disturbing are the personal testimonies given to Caterer.com about customers idiosyncratic behaviour when asked to stop smoking.

“When I told him to put his cigarette out, he pulled down his pants and started masturbating in front of me.”

I received an interesting comment on one of my earlier blogs about non-paying restaurant customers last night.

Jayne, a restaurant operator, wrote:

"We have had a few runners particularly now with the smoking ban as sometimes you cannot differentiate in a busy place when someone has actually gone out for a cigarette or is actually running off without paying. I wanted to know what the legal stance is on taking their credit card and keeping it behind the bar. Is there anyone else who has had a good idea? Please let me know"

Any thoughts? Let us know