Smoking ban has bar owners fuming.

The smoking ban in New York City restaurants hasn't become any less controversial since taking effect on April 1. It's three months later and the ban, which Mayor Bloomberg had said was enforced to protect the health of patrons and employees of bars and restaurants, doesn't appear to have made too many of the restaurant owners any more well-off, at least not financially.

After the smoke cleared--literally, many restaurants began to see a drop in business. Some New Yorkers chose to stay home to smoke and socialize with friends. Some turned their backs on New York altogether, by giving their business to New Jersey, where patrons are still asked "smoking or non-smoking?"

"It's not the restaurant owner's fault, but my use of their facilities is limited," said Lenore Janis, president of Professional Women in Construction. "People have certain attention spans, and if you're a smoker, you have to get out of there."

Janis has many colleagues who are restaurateurs, and as a "consumer and smoker," said she is appalled at city administrators for not being more sensitive to the restaurant owners "who are really hurting" because of it.

"The whole thing's a drag," agreed Juliana Nash, co-owner of Pete's Candy Store, a restaurant in Williamsburg. "People aren't staying that long. They go outside to smoke and we think they're gone so we throw out their drink. Then they come back and we have to make another, so we lose business that way. Someone might take their seat when they're out and they get mad. This is New York City. It's totally wrong."

One thing, Nash says, that has brought some of her customers back is the recent change in weather from last month's downpours to the current heat wave. Patrons have been dining in Pete's outdoor garden, which makes up about 30% of the restaurant's business. However, in May and June when it rained almost every day, Nash feared that Pete's Candy Store might have to close up shop for good.

Pete's, unlike some other restaurants with an outdoor dining area, has no awning, which means customers can smoke. The smoking ban forbids smoking outdoors if diners can't "see the sky."

"Why ban smoking outdoors because there's an awning?" vented Janice. "Owners went to great expense to protect their patrons from rain and sunlight at outdoor cafes, only to have to enforce a smoking ban? People who enjoy smoking with dinner and a drink are not going out anymore."

Although she used to use restaurants, bars and private clubs as her own "personal living room," to socialize with friends three or four times a week, Jams says she now entertains at home.

"I've asked around," she said. "A lot of people are entertaining at home and we save a lot of money. Ergo, that means someone's losing money."

However, some restaurant owners say that business in their establishments hasn't been hurt at all.

"Every smoker complains, but whoever doesn't smoke goes home feeling fresh and clean," said Alan Miguel Kaplan, owner of Salon Mexico on East 26th Street. According to Kaplan, business at Salon Mexico, ironically once a speakeasy before becoming a restaurant specializing in "Mexican Fusion" cuisine, hasn't been affected at all by the ban, and the patrons have been completely cooperative about not lighting up.

"It's irrelevant to me," said Kaplan. "I own a restaurant, not an Irish pub or a sports bar." Surprisingly, not all owners who fall into that category have suffered from the smoking ban either.

"I'm loving it," said Steve Wieb, owner of Westside Brewing Company, a sports cafe with a large bar area. "It hasn't affected business. People know it's not my fault, and if they want to smoke they go outside."

However for restaurant owners like Nash, forcing people who smoke, including her entire staff out the door creates more problems than it's worth. (That would be a hefty fine of $25 and upwards.)

"I don't smoke, so I like not being surrounded by it," said Nash, "but I also don't like how it looks with crowds of people outside. There's street noise and then the neighbors complain."

For those who refuse to smoke outside, there's always the other side of the Hudson to do it in. New Jersey restaurants, especially those along the waterfront, have seen a boost in their business.

In Bayonne, NJ, Amici's restaurant and martini lounge has benefited from the ban due to an influx of New York patrons. However, the increase in business hasn't been too drastic, said the restaurant's manager, Kevin Snarke.

"People who would normally hang out in New York are now coming here because they can smoke here," said Snarke, who is a smoker and doesn't agree with the ban. "I do understand that the non-smokers don't want to be in the same place as the smokers, but that's why you have a non-smoking section, an enclosed area where smokers can go instead of outside in the rain."

"I've definitely noticed a difference," said Rich MacZuga, manager at The Mile Square Bar and Grill in Hoboken, NJ. "Locals who worked in the city are coming right home and coming here to have dinner and drinks. It's good for me, because it's good for my business, but it limits my options. My friends and I all smoke, and no one wants to go out to the city, anymore. When I'm working it's great, when I'm not, it stinks."

"I think after time business in New York restaurants will go back to normal," said Snarke, "but they'll never have the same amount of people they had previously."