Clear Peek at a Smoke-Free Future

Many D.C. Bars, Restaurants Have Snuffed Out the Practice, Citywide Ban or Not

Sonny Shaw, left, and his friend George H. Joiner have drinks at Marty's, a Capitol Hill bar that has been smoke-free since it opened three years ago. (By Marvin Joseph -- The Washington Post)

The band of regulars is crowded around the polished bar at Marty's, a Capitol Hill tavern down the street from the Navy Yard and a Marine barracks. George, Ray and Terry are there, ribbing one another and Jose, the bartender. Others are tending to their beers, digging absent-mindedly into bowls of popcorn.

The smokers, though, share the bar's single ashtray, planted outside on the sidewalk next to a glowing heat lamp that some use to light up. Marty's is a smoke-free bar and has been since it opened three years ago.

The future of nightlife in the District might look a lot like Marty's if the city's new smoking ban goes into effect.

The owner, John Boyle, initially experimented with allowing smoking after 10 p.m., but his customers revolted. A few days after the tavern opened, Boyle put the ashtray outside. He promotes the bar's smoke-free policy in his advertising.

Marty's is one of nearly 200 bars and restaurants in the District that in recent years decided on their own to ban smoking. The list includes Nora, a fine-dining restaurant in Dupont Circle; Halo, a Logan Circle gay bar; and Blues Alley, Georgetown's renowned jazz club.

"I would never let people smoke at Marty's, because it would ruin what we built up," said Boyle, who says he is a businessman, not an anti-smoking crusader. His other bar, Harry's, in the Harrington Hotel downtown, welcomes smokers, many of them European tourists.

Marty's draws a mix of neighborhood families, Marines, Hill staffers and shoppers.

Blues Alley went smoke-free in April 2004, prompted by requests from musical artists, especially vocalists, who wanted to perform in a smoke-free room.

So far, it hasn't affected attendance, said Kris Ross, the club's operations director.

"We get some complaints, like, 'Hey, jazz bars are supposed to be smoky.' But of course, it's usually the guys who are standing outside [smoking] who are saying that."

Eric Hirshfield, owner of the 18th & U Duplex Diner, added his restaurant-bar to the list of smoking-ban converts last week. Hours after the D.C. Council voted 11 to 1 to approve a smoking ban Wednesday, he put up a sign: "DC Smoking Ban 2006 Now In Effect."

The law must be signed by the mayor before it is implemented, and bars will not be required to comply for a year. But Hirshfield saw no need to wait.