Hands Up and Butts Out!

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Because the law is directed at residents, not visitors, hotel dining rooms are exempt; restaurant bars and cocktail lounges are also excluded from the ban. "We understand the relationship between alcohol and cigarettes -- we're not out to reform human nature," explains former City Attorney Steven Rood. As for hotels, he notes, "French and Italian movie moguls can't do business without a cigarette in their mouth." Such reasoning does not satisfy restaurant owners. Vito Sasso, proprietor of the romantic Romeo and Juliet, argues that he too has foreign customers, citing one wealthy visitor who orders several $500 bottles of wine for a dinner tab of $4,000 -- which adds up to a month's rent. "He won't come in anymore because he can't smoke," moans Sasso. "That's like doubling my rent."

A local restaurant survey found that since the ban there has been a 30% drop in business. On the first night of the ban, 36 people called Romeo and Juliet to cancel their reservations. Mr. Chow, a chic Chinese eatery, registered a 17% initial decline and 65% two nights later. At the Beverly Hills Hamburger Hamlet, revenues were slashed by $3,000, while business in the chain's restaurant in nearby West Hollywood was up by the same amount. "The best restaurants are on our borders," says Joanne Le Bouvier, owner of the Saloon, which experienced a 45% setback. "You can just walk from here to another city. What chance do we have?"

Despite a pending lawsuit by the Beverly Hills Restaurant Association, it is unlikely the law will be repealed. "Posterity may find that this ban was well ahead of its time," says Patrick Reynolds, an antismoking activist and Beverly Hills resident who saw his father die of emphysema. He is the grandson of R.J. Reynolds, founder of the famed tobacco company.