No-smoking plan puts cloud over diner's customers

by Caroline Bermudez for The Journal-Gazette, Fort Wayne IN

Atmosphere and ambiance may not be the words frequently used to describe the place, but that is exactly why customers have been going there for years.

Pungent onions and grease tempered by a soft haze of tobacco smoke is what customers expect to smell when they walk into Powers Hamburgers Shop.  That's why the clientele of the diner, at 1402 S. Harrison St., guzzle caffeine, toke nicotine and don't worry about lung cancer.

But a proposed smoking ban could endanger the downtown diner that many residents have come to depend on for nearly 50 years.

The City Council has been debating a proposal that would order city restaurants to provide non-smoking areas for their customers.

The proposal, sponsored by City Councilman Donald J. Schmidt, R-2nd, would require a restaurant's non-smoking area to be at least half the size of its eating area.

Council members also are debating two amendments:  one that requires a non-smoking area but would allow owners to determine its size and another that would ban smoking in restaurants altogether.  The bill proposes fines up to $500 for restaurants that violate the law.

Council members are expected to vote on the issue Tuesday.

Powers customers say the idea stinks.

"When you're talking about a partial ban, that's like your going to your mama and telling her that you're a little bit pregnant," said Herb Brautzsch, owner of Apex Specialty Products Co., who's been a regular customer at Powers for 15 years.

"He's (Schmidt) got worms in his head if he thinks this is the right thing to do," Brautzsch said. 

"My mother died at age 42 and didn't smoke in her life.  My father smoked several packs a day and died at 99.  Where's the rationale in that?" said one federal employee, who asked not to be identified.

"They banned smoking in that building (Lincoln National Corp.), so they come over here and smoke," said Ron Hayes, a carpenter who lives on nearby Brackenridge Street.

Many Powers customers hail from the nearby Federal Building, Lincoln National Corp. and an auto service center.

"A lot of people come here just to drink coffee and smoke cigarettes," Hayes said.  "I come here when I get off work, because I know people in here...and you have to kill a little time before you go in to work.  Also, I live alone.  You can't talk to yourself or talk to a wall."

"I don't see why they can't just put a sign on the door saying if the smoke bothers you, don't come in," said Barb Vredenburg, a waitress at Powers.

Apparently, the smoke doesn't bother the few non-smokers who frequent Powers.  "I don't stop going to a restaurant just because they don't have a non-smoking section," said non-smoker Dave Sholl, a local marketing representative for an Indianapolis company.

Sholl said the smoke bothers his sinuses, but despite the number of smokers at Powers, the air wasn't so bad.  Powers has several air vents that pull out smoke and odors.  Even when 10 smokers lit up at once, the air was fairly clear.

Thursday morning, the number of customers peaked at 20, which is full capacity unless you add a chair to the end of the diner's single booth.  Despite national statistics that one of four people smoke, non-smokers are always in the minority at Powers.

"You can probably get one of two at a time who don't smoke.  Right now, you can see everyone up and down the counter here smoking," Hayes said.

But how do the few non-smokers at Powers react to studies that say breathing second-hand smoke is dangerous?

Most say it's their choice to eat there and no one else's.