Room to smoke: N.H. Senate oks cigar bars.

Some 26 cigar shops around the state will be able to serve liquor, if an amended version of House Bill 392 becomes law.

The New Hampshire Senate passed the bill May 13 after adding certain clarifications that proponents say would make sure that the cigar bars wouldn't compete with regular restaurants and bars that have to live with the smoking ban.

The amendment would restrict it to cigar bars that make at least half their money selling cigars (and not counting mail order and Internet sales); prohibit the sale of food (even peanuts), and make it clear that people can't smoke cigarettes there. It also gives a little warning to employees signing up to work in a cigar bar that, indeed, they will breathe secondhand smoke, a health hazard.

"Smoking is already going on in there," said Sen. Jacalyn Cilley, D-Barrington. "This allows them to serve a glass of cognac. This is an exemption that other states do. I don't see it as a slippery slope at all."

But Martha Fuller Clark, D-Portsmouth, urged fellow senators to kill the bill, saying that it would draw even more consumers into an "unhealthy environment," and the business will have to hire more workers to serve liquor who will be exposed to secondhand smoke, and it will "take a level playing field and undo it."

Because it was amended, the bill now goes to the back to the House.