It’s almost impossible to remember a time when one was asked whether they’d prefer the smoking or non-smoking section—these days, most places don’t give the option, thanks to anti-smoking bans that went into effect over the last decade.
But as Douglas Quenqua of the New York Times notes, New Yorkers are already ignoring the bans, smoking in establishments where the owners give them the opportunity to, despite laws that make such actions illegal. “Plenty of New York City bars have thumbed their noses at the smoking ban for as long as it has been the law,” Quenqua writes, “As early as 2004, The New York Times wrote about neighborhood bars that allowed friends and regulars to light up after closing time. In 2008, at the opening of the Libertine, a Todd English restaurant in the financial district, cigarette girls handed out free smokes that guests consumed liberally.”
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