Issue #26, September 22, 2006

First Ever Event

By David Lion Rattiner

There is a wonderful little place in Sag Harbor that you can go to and enjoy a cigar, a beer, some sports and even a late night crowd. The Cigar Bar in Sag Harbor has developed a reputation over the years as being a place for intimate conversation, friendly bartenders, good music, a cigar purchased from their humidor, or a cigarette if you were so inclined. It’s a wonderful place to go.

The Cigar Bar was around before the “Clean Air Act” was put into effect in New York State on July 24, 2003. The Clean Air Act, of course, was the controversial law that made it illegal to smoke cigars or cigarettes in virtually all workplaces. The law did not affect the Cigar Bar because they had a grandfather clause that made it legal for the bar to allow smoking, as stated in the Act. “Smoking is permitted in Cigar bars in existence prior to January 1, 2003 (where 10% or more of total annual gross income is from the sale of tobacco products.)”

You could still smoke at Cigar Bar. Yay for the rights of smokers.

Since the Monday after Labor Day, however, a local law has changed things. The local law supercedes the State Law. It is in Chapter 437 of Suffolk County Law and went into effect in January of this year and it does not have an exemption for existing cigar bars. The guys that go to smoke their cigars after a day out on their fishing boat, sailboat or yacht, to sip brandy and discuss the ways of the world are the ones that will feel the most frustration with the new law that is now being enforced at Cigar Bar. Who would have thought?

The regular patrons of Cigar Bar, who go to the bar because they can smoke there, are also angry about the whole thing, feeling that a freedom that they have come to enjoy has been sharply taken away. “It is almost surreal to go into The Cigar Bar now and not be able to smoke a cigar,” says one patron on the steps of The Cigar Bar outside among other smokers huddling together to stay out of the rain.

The reactions seem to be mixed. After all, the name of the bar is The Cigar Bar, you go there and expect it to be smoky. The new rule, however, may attract new customers to the bar that once didn’t go in because of the smoke. The atmosphere is still the same intimate setting, the bartenders still have the friendly faces and the music is still great.

Arleen Furer, the owner of The Cigar Bar and a local Sag Harbor resident, has owned The Cigar Bar for the past eleven years. She expressed to me that people’s freedoms are being taken away and that is the part that bothers her most. “This is basically the government taking away more and more freedoms. This was a pre-existing cigar bar. People, of course, can still come in and buy cigars and bring them home and smoke them there. That is until the law says that you can’t do that anymore.”

Arleen didn’t seem fearful of the law affecting her business. “There are a lot of people that come in here and don’t smoke. People love the atmosphere here. I’d really have to compare this year to last year to see if it affects business. It will be interesting to see how this will open The Cigar Bar up to the group of people that don’t like smoke.”

Arlene has been enforcing the new rule since the Monday after Labor Day, and according to reports, the place was still packed. “I still love the Cigar Bar but I don’t like the new rule,” says Shannon Flaherty, a twenty-something that calls the Cigar Bar her favorite place to go.

It does feel like the end of an era to those who really gain great pleasure out of going to a place to smoke and find the romance in a good cigar accompanied by a nice drink and friends, but the new smoking laws put health first. While that is always important, bit by bit, smoking is becoming something more and more difficult to do. If you ask the smokers about this, it’s a bad thing. If you ask the non-smokers about this, it’s a good thing. And then of course, there are the people that just think people should be allowed to make their own decisions about such things. You don’t find too many of those in politics.