Smoke‑free restaurant ‘an absolute, positive delight’

For the article, “Smoking ban affecting some bars more than others” (The Desert Advocate, May 9), only people opposed to the ban seem to have been interviewed, e.g., Morgan Knaap, who, reportedly while sitting at The Roadhouse, said: “I’m here to kill my liver and I want to kill my lungs, too. If you don’t want to smell my smoke, sit at home.”

Morgan and other smoking‑ban anti’s, if you want to kill yourselves, you go right ahead. In this country, grownups are, for the most part, entitled to do to themselves whatever they wish. But we are also a democracy, and the majority has spoken. So perhaps you should buy your beer at Circle K (Morgan’s reported advice to those who don’t want to breathe his smoke).

As they say about swinging fists, your right to smoke ends where my nose begins. Last night, it was an absolute, positive delight for my husband and me to walk into Harold’s and not see everything through a fog of rank smoke, and be able to taste the perfectly cooked salmon because the air we were breathing was, for the first time, clear!

At first, quite honestly, we were disoriented–we knew something was different, but we couldn’t put our finger on why it was so pleasant–until we overheard one malcontent at the bar railing against the ban.

Our prediction is that, as soon as all members of the non‑smoking majority realize that we no longer have to choke and wheeze and “flavor” our food and wine with Morgan’s smoke in the Cave Creek restaurants, their bar business will come roaring back–albeit with a new, smarter, longer‑living customer base.

Meanwhile, we’re heading back to Harold’s for dinner tonight.

Carol Fensholt
Scottsdale