Final post for today?

Hong Kong law mandates no smoking in restaurants. However, smoking is still allowed in bars until July 2009. But today, if you go to Wanchai bars and you smoke, there’s a surprise in store for you. Devils Advocate, White Stag, Heat, Mes Ami, Delaney, Carnegie and other bars are suddenly all non-smoking.

What happened is that one of the nearby restaurants has complained to the authorities that these bars are really restaurants pretending to be bars. And the authorities then stepped in and decreed that these venues are restaurants and therefore must be smoke free.

Sure, these places all serve food. Some of the food is quite okay, too. Did you know that every Monday night at Devil’s Advocate you can get a 12 inch pizza with your choice of topping, an appetizer and two standard drinks for just $89? And how many people know that Dusk Till Dawn has a dinner for $105 every night – 3 courses and a glass of house wine? So food is a steady part of their business, but definitely not the largest part.

These places all complied with the law a year ago that said they must prove they get over 60% (I think) of their revenue from drinks. But now some spoil sport took a look, figured he was losing business because he can’t allow smoking and decided to ruin it for everyone. “If I can’t have it, neither can you! Nyah, nyah, nyah!”

The bars in question are going to court tomorrow to appeal the decision.

Meanwhile, one is left to wonder, which restaurant is run by babies who would make such a petulant claim? No one is publicly saying, but there are only a few in that area (ones that cater to a primarily foreign clientèle) – Outback, Curry Pot, JoJo’s Mess, a couple of others.

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Years ago, something similar happened to me. In the mid 80s, I was manager and co-owner of a CD shop in New York’s Greenwich Village. At the time, all the good rock stuff was only coming out on CD in the UK, or at least weeks in advance of US release. And I had a guy in the UK who would call me every Monday and read me the list of the week’s new releases. I’d have them in hand by Thursday, same week, and at a wholesale price not too much higher than domestic releases.

Word got out and my business boomed. On Saturdays, people were coming from Philadelphia and Connecticut to my store. I was even starting a small wholesale business, selling these imports to other stores.

And some of the stores near me got jealous of the business I was doing. They were also selling UK imports, but they couldn’t figure out how I was getting the stuff so fast and so cheap. One store figured out that the best way to complete with me was to report me to the RIAA, because at the time it was illegal to sell parallel imports (though everyone was doing it).

The RIAA sent detectives to my shop, they bought stuff, and soon I was the recipient of a cease and desist letter. My partner said we had to comply and, truth is, we didn’t have the money to hire lawyers to fight this.

Overnight my business dropped by about 60%. And the hundreds of people who came to my shop every week had no new source for their weekly music fix. Everyone lost.

Luckily for me, one of my steady customers was a guy who worked in syndicated radio and had a vague idea about using my CD knowledge as the basis of a new syndicated series. But that’s another story for another time …

Of course these bars won’t suffer a 60% drop-off if they have to remain non-smoking. Most are open to the street so it’s just two steps to get outside and light up. Just another jealous asshole somewhere.

Hongkie Town
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