Rick Dwight is a biker who installs glass for a living. A smoker from the age of 10, he has always enjoyed smoky bars for socializing, shooting pool and finding dates.
“I’ve always picked up women in smoky bars,” he said. “If I wanted a nonsmoker, I could go to a lot of bars. But I usually have nicotine on my breath, so they wouldn’t want to talk to me and I wouldn’t want to deal with them.”
The 47-year-old Lakewood man is among thousands of Jefferson County smokers who gravitate toward smoke-filled rooms that generally repel nonsmokers.
With a possible statewide smoking ban looming, Dwight and his pub pals fear a drastic lifestyle change when the nicotine haze clears from taverns and pool halls.
“Bars are where people come to have a good time, to let their inhibitions down,” Dwight said.
He added non-smokers wouldn’t even want to be in a smoky bar.
Dwight spends much of his leisure time at The Putt n’ Pub on West Colfax Avenue. It’s one of many bars throughout the county considered smoker-friendly, where, according to Dwight, “80 percent of the people smoke.”
Another smoker-friendly bar is Binker’s Pub, 9575 W. 57th Ave. Following Arvada’s smoking ban, owner Dave Caulder petitioned the City Council for an exemption, which he won.
“Eighty percent of our customers smoke,” Caulder said. “There are also no non-smokers working here. There’s a whole gamut of smokers — men, women, all ages. We’re all sitting here drinking liquor, so we’re not the most health-conscious people in the world.”
One of Caulder’s customers, Chris Koth, 25, has been visiting Binker’s since he turned 21. He works in construction and smokes.
“You work a hard day, you feel like drinking a cold beer and having a smoke,” Koth said. “You can’t beat it man. The casual talk — it’s the blue collar lifestyle, I guess.”
Needless to say, the smoking ban doesn’t sit well with bar patrons like Koth and particularly Dwight, who left California around the time the state passed a smoking ban and helmet laws. He recalled a time when he returned to California, walked into a bar, ordered a shot and asked for an ashtray.
“They said I couldn’t smoke there,” he said, using colorful language to tell them he didn’t like the rule. “I’ll smoke in a bar if I want to.’”
Another California transplant, Stephen Smith, tends bar at Golden Bowl/300 Club, 525 24th St. He smokes, as do “80 percent” of his customers, he said. He has a different take on the smoking ban, not seeing it as a big deal, and not something that could threaten his tips.
“You go to a bar to drink, not necessarily to smoke,” Smith said. “As long as women are at bars, guys will go there. As long as guys are at bars, women will go there.”