Metro Council considers banning smoking and vapor products to improve health and business economics. How do dive bar patrons feel about it?

Alexis MarshallWPLN News

The Villager Tavern describes itself as "Nashville’s historic darting institution." The bar has been around for nearly half a century, and until just a few years ago, smoking was allowed inside.

When you step into the Villager Tavern on 21st Ave South, you are flooded with images of customers.

In some of the photos closer to the door it’s easy to see the big grins on people’s faces. Others are coated in a yellow film that looks like leftover butter from a popcorn bag.

That’s because during the height of the pandemic the bar owners decided to stop allowing cigarette smoking.

“I walked in the door with my mother. We were doing to-go orders,” bar owner and manager Andrew Piarrot says. “And she just goes ‘Wow, it’s so nice in here.’ And I just looked at her and I said ‘Let’s just do it. It’s done.”

Now the Metro Council is considering banning smoking and vapor products in all venues, including 21 and up bars where it has still been allowed.

But before the Villager quit smoking they tossed the question to their customers in the area through a Facebook poll.

“We’re targeting the neighborhood,” Piarrot says. “And the non-smoking was beating the pants off of smoking.”

Since then, they’ve seen a shift in who their customers are, partly because the neighborhood is more transient. But the smoking plays a part too.

“Not being smoking has helped me because I need to get their business immediately,” he says. “I need to get as many people in the doors in the neighborhood as possible, because I might lose them in a year or two.”

The city’s goal is to reduce the harmful effects of secondhand smoke and improve business. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says smoke-free policies improve both.

“This is a pro-business bill. It is a public health bill. This is not just about musicians. It’s about our health of hospitality workers,” says Councilmember Jeff Syracuse, who wrote the bill.

“It’s fine with me,” Villager Tavern bartender Ronda Wey says. “It’s best probably for everybody. But a lot of people may not like it. I’m a smoker but I go outside like I’m supposed to.”

A patron responds to Wey that they miss smoking at the bar.

The Metro bill also applies inside buildings owned or leased by the local government, within 50 feet of the entrance of a hospital, an outdoor amphitheater with at least 6,000 seating capacity and on public playgrounds.

State allows cigar bars to continue operating, and the city is giving cannabis and hookah bars the green light. So the ban primarily impacts nicotine.

The Metro Council will vote next week on whether smoking should be prohibited. If it passes, the law will go into effect in March and come with a $50 fine if someone violates it.

When the Metro Public Health Department does inspections, they’ve already started notifying businesses that they have 60 days to wrap it up.