No Ifs, Ands or Butts

COSTA MESA —  There were plenty of angry smokers in Orange County--and some renegades lighting up defiantly--after California’s new ban on smoking in bars took effect Thursday.

But Jack Simpson was happy to leave his Camel Lights behind when he came to a bar here to watch New Year’s Day bowl games. Simpson’s reason: He had quit his 10-year, two-pack-a-day habit the day before.

“I’d be at home right now if they didn’t pass that law,” said Simpson, 43, of Santa Ana. “I’m too new to the nonsmoking thing. I’d have wigged out.”

Simpson was chewing gum and straws, drinking iced tea and wearing a nicotine patch on his right shoulder as he watched college football in the smoke-free Legends Sports Bar and Restaurant.

From San Juan Capistrano to Santa Monica to San Francisco, smokers leaned out of barroom doors, headed for parking lots, retreated to patios or quietly defied the latest attack on the habit that has made them social lepers.

They bemoaned the loss of their last sanctuary; they carped about government intervention; they said the bar business would go bust. But, mostly, they found a way to smoke.

For Farrell Fullerton the new no-smoking order meant a simple balancing act. Planted in the doorway of Domenico’s sports bar in Pasadena, the 56-year-old held his draft beer in one hand, inside the doorway, and his cigarette in the other, over the sidewalk.

“This is how it has to be, one hand in and one hand out. You can’t have beer outside and you can’t smoke inside,” Fullerton said.

Until Thursday morning, smoking had been allowed in the bar area and cigar lounge. Now Legends customers who want to smoke sit on a bench outside. There are no ashtrays in sight.

“I’m not real thrilled with it,” said Sue Brown, 43, of Orange, who obeyed the rule by stepping outside for a quick puff. “But what am I going to do? I’m just one person.”

If observed in a similar manner elsewhere, the new ban would set a national precedent by clearing the air in most California taverns--from franchise sports bars to corner saloons and pubs.

The ban, based on a 1994 state law, makes exceptions for bars on Indian land, those that are owner-operated and have no employees and those that are not enclosed by four walls and a ceiling. Violators are subject to fines of up to $100 for a first offense.

Everyone appeared to be aware of the ban, and some were on the lookout for what they called “the smoking police.”

Opinions on the ban were sharply divided. Several nonsmokers said they were pleased with the change, though they acknowledged some ambivalence.

“I’m prejudiced,” said Ted, a patron of Gaynor’s Lounge in Garden Grove, who would not give his last name. “Being in a bar without smoke is better for me. But I don’t want to judge other people.”

Agustin Heredia, 26, of Costa Mesa called the ban 80% positive and 20% negative. “When I go out to a place, my clothes won’t smell bad,’ said Heredia, at Legends. “But then again, you’re taking away someone’s rights.”

And one nonsmoker at Champions Sports Bar in Huntington Beach vehemently opposed the ban, saying smoking didn’t bother him at all.

The new rule “really stinks,” said Rick Novosel, 40, of Huntington Beach. “It’s everybody’s right to do what they want. You take firecrackers away on the Fourth [of July]. What’s next?”

Times staff writers Henry Weinstein, Amy Oakes, Valerie Burgher and Eric Rimbert, and the Associated Press, contributed to this report.