Craft Talk - Smoking out clientele

In this month's column, Craft Guild member Richard Punshon considers the imminent smoking ban and how it's likely to affect the trade.

If the Government continues with its current proposals, in

less than four years smoking will be banned in pubs and bars serving prepared food.

Pubs serving only snacks such as crisps will be exempt.

While I think it should be down to each pub to decide its own fate, for pubs that are predominantly food-based I see this as a positive move. If the emphasis is on good-quality

food, surely banning smoking can only improve the experience.

Here at the Dog and Partridge, it's never really been an issue as we are a local pub and much of our trade is from the older end of the market, people who don't seem to smoke.

Our family room, restaurant and hotel are all non-smoking areas. For the 20% or so of our customers who do smoke, we have a small separate area.

However, I know that for many the smoking ban is a contentious issue.

Those that have banned smoking have had a drop in sales of both food and drink.

It would definitely be a mistake for the government to introduce a blanket ban because I really don't see the problem if you aren't serving food and you have adequate filtration.

It was interesting to see how pubs and bars in Ireland were coping with the ban when I visited recently. After an initial period where sales of food and drink seemed to fall, customers are steadily returning and the pubs all seem full. Many places have built outside shelters and installed heaters to coax their smokers outside - even in winter.

One publican I met had opened up the yard where he stored old kegs to make room for smoking customers. For another, it led to him giving up smoking when he realised just how much time he spent at the bar smoking with his customers!

I think pubs here have just got to go with the flow and put measures in place now, so that when the ban does come into play, it'll be business as usual.

Richard Punshon, owner and chef at the Dog & Partridge, Bord Hill ,Flough, Crows Edge, Sheffield