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A bit of pub democracy

I don't smoke. I don't like to smell like a well aged ashtray after stopping at a pub for a couple of beers. I don't understand what is it that people see in cigarettes, they taste like shit. I'm convinced that most smokers are nothing but filthy pigs who aren't able to walk a couple of metres to throw the butts into a dustbin, and I don't even want to talk about those idiots who throw the butts out of their car windows.

That said, I am against a smoking ban at restaurants, etc. On the one hand, because tobacco, in any shape (except for the chewing, which I don't understand), is a legal product that can be purchased by anyone older than 18 without restrictions, and on the other, because I have the impression that many of the activists calling for such ban are nothing but selfish twats* who can't respect the rights of others. You go to a restaurant etc. because you want, and the same way you choose a place based on the kind of food, prices, atmosphere, convenience, etc. you can choose it based on its policy towards smoking. And that's why I think the current law is very sensible, it makes owners indicate at the door whether smoking is or isn't allowed at their shops.

That said, I am really happy to see that, at least in Prague, there are more and more places where smoking isn't allowed. On the one hand, because I believe that non-smokers have the right to go to places where they will feel comfortable, and on the other, because in all cases, it was the owners who decided. And I specially like those owners who made the decision after consulting with the most important factor in any commercial equation, the client.

Something like that is what Hanz, the owner of Zlý Časy, has decided to do. During the summer holidays, Nusle's beer temple will be non-smoking (actually, smoking will still be allowed in the garden, but those on the know go downstairs). At the moment, this is a pilot test during which clients can let know how they like the change. Whether this change will be permanent or not will depend solely what people have to say about it. Personally, I hope that it's the smokers who will prevail. So, drink up and speak up.

Regardless of what the final decision turns out to be, here you have a list of smoke free places:

- Pivovar U Medvídku (only at the brewpub)
- Baráčnická Rychta
- Dobrá Trafika, at leat the branch in Korunní
- Pivovarský Dům and Pivovarský Klub
- Kulový Blesk
- Klášterní Šenk
- Pivovar Bašta

These are the ones I can remember at the moment. If anyone knows of any other, let me know.

Na Zdraví!

* Smokers can also be selfish twats, like that bird, the only smoker in a group of six, who got really angry at her mates when she realised that she couldn't light up at Kulový Blesk. Until she was told to shut the fuck up, she didn't stop complaining and insisting they all went somewhere else.

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Comments

  1. I live in a country that has had a total smoking ban for several year now,all resturant,bars etc must be smoke free though people can and do smoke in garden areas,so much so that in the warmer weather you can't enjoy a drink outside without sufferng the smoke,I still think that we could have smoking rooms in pubs but the way our goverment looks at it is that they are protecting the bar staff from the effecvts of passive smoking regardless of whether they smoke or not.
    I was in the Brew House in Tallin a few years ago where they had a smoking room made completely of glass walls an doors,it just looked like a part of the room and the smokers could feel as though they were still part of the pub.
    In Scotland if the pub does not have a beer garden them folk just smoke in the street outside and you have to run the gauntlet of smokers to get in and out of the place.

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  2. well 60 will be my next milestone birthday and there is no way I will stop drinking.I am more of a whisky drinker than a beer drinker,but it's about quality rather than quantity for me.As long as the govermnet keeps taxing my alcohol and I kepp paying it then they can go swivel.

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  3. Ses pivni idiot

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