Bar Talk – Up in Smoke
An occasional column of interest to Bar and Tavern owners, managers and staff, and to others who place a value on the time-honored tradition of professional and community service embodied by our industry!
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In the Bar business, there’s always one curmudgeon of a customer that you would wish he or she, would just take their business elsewhere for a change and leave you the hell alone. You know of whom I speak. Its always someone who has the uncanny knack, despite their lack of sophistication or perhaps education, still manages each day to vex you, not because they are wrong, but often because they are annoyingly and frequently correct, like they can see past your dark glasses, your eyes, and your subterfuge and see right into your soul!
There are many of these folks, wandering their days here, unheralded. Some take up causes that seem to cry out for attention. Starvation in Africa, wounded whales in Maine, Japanese foot-tying, fish-farming abuse of growth hormones, whatever. But whatever it is they champion, you know three things before they ever open their mouths.?
They are accurate and honest in their defense or condemnation of whatever the topic.
They know there are two sides to their story, only one of them true!
They are so incredibly and sincerely motivated and inspired by it that their eyes pop!
Well such a person is Richard Naylon, who owns a bar in Buffalo! Yes, that vast empty land that Hilary and Chuck like to call the heartland, in reality is an artic refuge of folks who are happy with their pace of life, would like to keep it that way, and frankly would prefer us New Yorkers would secede to Delaware and they wouldn’t have to pay us much heed, no how, in the future!
Back to Rick. For 27 years he has run his bar, catering for regular blue-collar folk, who just like to get out of the house for a while, on a regular basis, have a beer, discuss the Bills (Buffalo, not Verizon) and shoot pool, maybe play lotto, and yes, draw down deep on a fag (cigarette to you pops), until you can imagine the very tip being sucked deep into their craggy heads, and thawing that cool demeanor that these guys exhibit.
These are no LL Bean models. These are real men, with real hopes and aspirations and a love for their country, their families, their Buicks and yes, their freedoms! Not for nothing did their forefathers cross frozen tundras, starvation-wracked bogs and wintry, vengeful seas to escape their demons and their antagonists.
These are clever and resourceful folks, used to fending for themselves, making do! They don’t exhibit much feminine charm, nor do they carry much credit card debt! No, they’d prefer beer to Evian, and check shirts to Tommy H, but they smile a lot too, not strut, just smile! These are the folks who come over with a pie when you could do with a boost and come over with a tractor when the snow’s too deep for you to get the kids to the school-bus! These are the modest men who fought world wars, built Kodak, and carved out canals that tamed the great lakes. This is America!
So when a guy like Rick Naylon starts writing stuff, getting his name in the paper, making a fuss, bringing down the law on himself, and using words that frankly folks up there simply don’t use, America should sit up and take note.
This is the dog that frets before the earthquake. This is the canary in the coal-mine. This is the belly-up fish in the poisoned pond! This is the wrong that rankled Braveheart!
Rich Naylon recently got in trouble, allowing his neighbors, yes, his customers to smoke in his bar, but only after he had read them his home-made disclaimer, warning them that they smoked at their own risk, in his Government-mandated non-smoking bar.?
His interpretation of the law, and yet to be tested, in court, was that the law does in no way force him to try to act as a policeman, and evict offending smokers from his bar. He is an Inn-keeper. A Tavernier. A Professional. He is carrying on a 200 year tradition of service to his community, serving and monitoring his customers in his bar, while they consume legally sanctioned drugs, namely Alcohol and Tobacco. Nowhere does the law say he has to throw his customers out, should they choose to ignore good healthy advice, and drink alcohol while on anti-biotics, or smoke cigarettes, while nursing a cold, or a 20-year-hence heart-attack!
The Authorities want to shut him down and may yet succeed. He faces fines and legal fees in the thousands of dollars, and yet he persists.
Why?
Well maybe his letter to the president of the NY State Restaurant Association, of which he, Rich, is a member tells the story better than I.?
Dear Mr. Sampson,
Here we are, fourteen months into the NYS smoking ban.? Literally hundreds of bars, taverns and saloons have been forced out of business. Hundreds more are teetering on the verge of closing. You’ll be happy to know that, Jimmy Mac’s in Buffalo will go out of business before the end of this year. The smoking ban that you and the NYSRA endorsed through Bruno and Silver has destroyed an entire segment of the NYS economy. Thousands of hard-working people are out of work.
I was at a meeting in Niagara County last Monday with Sen. George Maziarz and Assemblyperson Francine Del Monte and many bar owners from that county. Grown men were crying as they describing how they had closed their bars that they had worked decades to build up and keep going. They described how they had overcome many obstacles being in business but the one that was beyond conquering was the state imposed smoking ban endorsed by you and your organization. One former bar owner as he cried told the crowd how he closed the bar he owned for 16 years? and? now has a job at the Indian run gambling casino bussing tables for $7.50 per hour. The casino, by the way, where eating, drinking and smoking are still legal. Nice level playing field.
How do you sleep at night knowing that the so-called LEVEL PLAYING FIELD has DESTROYED so many lives?
Francine Del Monte told the crowd that the NYSRA asked for and endorsed the smoking ban. The shocking part of this is that many of us thought that you were representing us against this sort of crazy governmental intervention into our businesses.
Respectfully, Rick Naylon, Jimmy Mac’s, Buffalo, NY
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New York’s Hospitality Industry Alliance needs your support!
Join one of these organizations today. Support the urge for change.
The United Restaurant and Tavern Owners of New York, (URTO),
New York Nightlife Association (NYNA),
The Empire State Restaurant & Tavern Association (ESRTA),
Innkeepers Association of Western New York
Brooklyn-Queens Restaurant & Tavern Assoc.
Suffolk-Peconic Restaurant & Tavern Assoc.
Staten Island Tavern Owners Assoc.
Amusement and Music Operators of America (AMOA)
Tavern Owners United For Fairness (TUFF-NYC)
Publicans United for Fairness (PUFF-USA)????? Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment (NYC-CLASH)
Bartender Magazine, Murphguide, Irish Pub Guide, Home and Away Newspaper,?
Brian Nolan, United Restaurant and Tavern Owners of New York. Phone 212 557 5200. E-mail Brian.Nolan@urandto.com?
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