City's First Smoking Sports Grill | DiscountCigarettesBox.com Tobacco News

City's First Smoking Sports Grill

The timing of the decision to take the Caprock Cafe's 34th Street and Indiana Avenue location totally smokeless seems to amuse partner David Cea.

"I was president of the Lubbock Restaurant Association the first two times they tried to ban smoking cigarettes in restaurants," he said. "The first time, we opposed it because we thought it would hurt business. The second time, we wanted to keep the playing field level for restaurants."

The midtown restaurant, the first to retain smoking cigarettes under the "sports grill" exemption after the city curbed smoking cigarettes in restaurants in 2001, is going fully smokeless July 5. The restaurant, which opened in September 1997, has been smoke-free at lunch for nearly six years.

It's both a big thing and something the owners of Caprock Cafe - Loyd and Karen Turner, David and Cheryl Cea and Jerol and Heather Fanta - have already had some experience with.

The three couples also own Lubbock's two Orlando's restaurants. Both of those have been smoke-free establishments since September 2003, in compliance with the city's 2001 ordinance that gave restaurants three years to either go smokeless or create designate separately walled and ventilated smoking cigarettes areas.

It's also something the owners have been watching since opening the second Caprock Cafe, at 82nd Street and Slide Road. It's been a smoke-free sports grill from opening day.

Not only has it been successful, says Chief Executive Officer Loyd Turner, it's attracted several imitators in the market.

"We can't ignore the success of the smoke-free Caprock Cafe location," he said, adding the decision is simply about making the majority of the customers happy.

In addition to seeing the smoke-free restaurant thrive, Turner said, staff at the 34th Street location has been watching the current customers, and noted that since opening in 1997, the number of customers who smoke cigarettes has been gradually declining.

They estimate the number of customers smoking cigarettes is about 25 percent, but on many packed nights, it's been as low as 10 percent.

In 1995, Cea and other Lubbock Restaurant Association members opposed a smoking cigarettes ban because they feared losing business.

Today, he says, the decision to eliminate cigarettes use at the original Caprock Cafe is about attracting customers that will spend more - trading the loss in trade from smokers who'll go elsewhere after July 5 for families that are likely to buy more food.

And, Cea and Turner said, they're also hoping the change will generate more business before and after sporting events at Texas Tech as well as before and after concerts and other large events at United Spirit Arena and other nearby venues.

They'd notice traffic didn't pick up as much as they thought it would in connection with concerts and sporting events.

In one case, Cea said, a party of 10 walked in to the 34th Street location after a recent concert and immediately left because of the smoke. They drove across town to the 82nd Street and Slide Road Caprock Cafe.

Along with the expected change in revenues, Cea said, savings in several areas will boost the bottom line: no more ashtrays to scrub after closing time, and no longer will a cleaning crew come in every three months to scrub the walls, ceiling tiles and other surfaces clean of the tarry residue of smoky nights.

And on a larger scale, there's also concern about fires. It's something they've been through before, as a cigarette smouldering in a bar trash can flared at the Orlando's on Indiana Avenue. One wall was destroyed, and the entire building suffered smoke cigarettes damage, and the restaurant was closed for two weeks for repairs and remodeling.

On a more personal scale, it's about the employees.

"In a smoke-free environment, our employees will be out less often with colds and sinus infections," Cea said.

And it opens the door to more potential job applicants, he added, explaining a waitress who'd been hired recently at the location quit after just two days on the job because "she just couldn't handle the smoke."

They announced the change June 5, and Turner says there's been a little grumbling from smokers, but he added that's all offset by the hug he got from a little girl who's happy about the new situation.

There will be one really big cleanup effort coinciding with the new rule, with fresh paint and stain for the walls and the bar, along with removing any lingering smoke cigarettes odor that might be caught in the smoke cigarettes removal and air conditioning systems.

And there'll be some other surprising changes that will come up now that the restaurant won't have to abide by the city's zoning definition of a sports grill so that smoking cigarettes would be allowed.

One big change will be more family-oriented, Turner said, including revival of a children's menu, the Little Wrangler. Under the city's zoning rules, a sports grill can't have anything happening that's oriented toward minors, whether it's marketing, activities, games or even portions.

"We can put menus on the place mats and give children crayons," Turner said.

The sports grill was a compromise Cea worked hard to craft with city officials because when the idea of a smoking cigarettes ban came back to City Hall, one proposal was to allow smoking cigarettes to continue in bars, bingo halls and bowling alleys. All restaurants, however, would have to go smokeless. Cea was looking for a way to keep one group from gaining an unfair advantage from the ordinance.

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