Toronto Restaurants of the 80s and 90s

[someMidTowner]

When did smoking come to an end in Toronto's restaurants?

Early 2000s IIRC

 

[Skeezix]

When did smoking come to an end in Toronto's restaurants?

At least three decades after it ought to have ended, and long after we knew better.

 

[narduch]

I remember bars and restaurants crying bloody murder.

But it has made the experience way better for non-smokers.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

I remember bars and restaurants crying bloody murder.

But it has made the experience way better for non-smokers.

The City of Toronto never fully banned smoking in restaurants - the city by-law just requires smoking rooms; the complete ban is provincial (2006):

https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2012/hl/bgrd/backgroundfile-50767.pdf

Given the declining smoking rate over the past 30 years, banning smoking is simply a good business decision in the long run - there are more non-smokers than smokers out there, and I bet you non-smokers are more likely to avoid an establishment that allow smoking than the other way around.

AoD

 

[Skeezix]

It is a good business decision. And it is saving lives.

 

[W. K. Lis]

The City of Toronto never fully banned smoking in restaurants - the city by-law just requires smoking rooms; the complete ban is provincial (2006):

https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2012/hl/bgrd/backgroundfile-50767.pdf

Given the declining smoking rate over the past 30 years, banning smoking is simply a good business decision in the long run - there are more non-smokers than smokers out there, and I bet you non-smokers are more likely to avoid an establishment that allow smoking than the other way around.

AoD

I remember becoming of age and going into a sleazy bar. After trying to hold my breath, between sips of beer, had to leave the place. I was a non-smoker even in the 1970's and on.

 

[gabe]

It is a good business decision. And it is saving lives.

People smoke less, but they are drinking more now than ever. Alcohol now a days is more socially acceptable and destroys more lives than other drugs. Alcohol sends more people to hospitals than heart attacks.

 

[narduch]

People smoke less, but they are drinking more now than ever. Alcohol now a days is more socially acceptable and destroys more lives than other drugs. Alcohol sends more people to hospitals than heart attacks.

Hopefully this will go down once weed is legal.

 

[gabe]

I remember becoming of age and going into a sleazy bar. After trying to hold my breath, between sips of beer, had to leave the place. I was a non-smoker even in the 1970's and on.

I remember when Tim Hortons had glass enclosed smoking rooms in the mid 1990s. I believe they were one of the first coffee chains to go smoke free. Worst was getting a smoking room in a hotel. Now a days pretty much all hotel chains are smoke free. Lately i find some hotel rooms do smell like smoke, but it's pot smoke. I don't really have a problem with that, since most of my friends are pot heads, but for some people the smell of pot smoke in the room could be a huge problem.

 

[Skeezix]

People smoke less, but they are drinking more now than ever. Alcohol now a days is more socially acceptable and destroys more lives than other drugs. Alcohol sends more people to hospitals than heart attacks.

Agreed. It is hard listening to the hand-wringing in some quarters about cannabis legalization, when that energy could be better spent targeting alcohol abuse.

But at least alcohol can be consumed in moderation. There is no safe way to smoke tobacco.

 

[Skeezix]

I remember when Tim Hortons had glass enclosed smoking rooms in the mid 1990s. I believe they were one of the first coffee chains to go smoke free. Worst was getting a smoking room in a hotel. Now a days pretty much all hotel chains are smoke free. Lately i find some hotel rooms do smell like smoke, but it's pot smoke. I don't really have a problem with that, since most of my friends are pot heads, but for some people the smell of pot smoke in the room could be a huge problem.

I now find it hard to believe that restaurants once had smoking and non-smoking sections, often separated by nothing more than an imaginary line, and people in the smoking section didn't think twice about lighting up indoors. I have no idea how we put up with that nonsense for so long.

 

[Johnny Au]

I am fortunate enough that for much of my life, many restaurants are smoke-free.

Don't forget about vaping in restaurants, which is considered a grey area.

I am a teetotal non-smoker non-vaper.

 

[Skeezix]

[...] Don't forget about vaping in restaurants, which is considered a grey area. [...]

Soon not to be. The Smoke-Free Ontario Act, 2017 comes into force on July 1, in just over a month.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Weed stinks to high heavens - I can't wait to see the day when it is only available in extract/oil form.

AoD

 

[wild goose chase]

The Asian Legend at Sheppard and Brimley (almost next to what used to be Woody Woodchuck's) retains the chalet-style interior reflecting its former tenant, Swiss Chalet.

There was also some time ago (gone now), also in Scarborough, at Kennedy and Ellesmere, the Pizza Hut that became converted into a Chinese restaurant but still had the word "hut" kept in the name.

http://notfoolinganybody.com/chinese-hut/