The owner of a Chapel Hill hookah bar says he will defy the state’s new smoking ban that has ensnared his business but exempted other types of smoking establishments. Adam Bliss, owner of Hookah Bliss, believes the ban is discriminatory. He will continue to sell hookahs and alcohol beginning Jan. 2, the day it becomes illegal to smoke in most North Carolina bars and restaurants.
“You can come in and have a smoke and have a beer and enjoy the rock ‘n’ roll music that I play,” said Bliss, whose bar is one of a handful across the state where flavored tobacco is smoked through a pipe filled with water. The activity traces its roots to India. “We are going to stay open and we are going to do business as usual.”
Tobacco shops, cigar bars, guest rooms in lodging establishments designated as smoking rooms, nonprofit private clubs, and performers acting in TV, film, and theatrical productions were exempted from the ban. Hookah bars weren’t, despite Bliss’ campaign to protect his industry.
Failure to comply may bring penalties. Tom Konsler, Orange County’s environmental health director, expects enforcement to be complaint-driven. He said the county’s first response to a complaint would be to talk with the owner. If complaints continue, a warning letter would be sent. A subsequent complaint would trigger a second warning letter. The third and subsequent violations could trigger a fine of up to $200 per day.
“We’re hoping not to test that,” Konsler said. Last month, more than 300 local restaurants and bars were sent information about the law’s requirements. Konsler said the county is aware of Bliss and that a representative will visit him in the next week or two to discuss his plans.
“I’ll talk with them when they get here,” Bliss said.
Bliss said he faced three choices: continue operating as usual, stop selling alcohol to fit the definition of a tobacco shop rather than a bar, or close his doors altogether.
Since alcohol accounts for 20 to 25 percent of his sales, eliminating beer would send the bar into a nosedive it might not survive. Beer sales are particularly brisk on weekends in a college town and Bliss doesn’t want to give up a profitable product. He says dumping beer would also hurt his customers because he’d have to raise prices on other things.
Closing the doors of his 2 ½-year-old business would devastate Bliss. At risk is roughly $70,000 in cash invested or still owed. Giving up would also put him on the unemployment line. Half a dozen part-time employees would join him there.
January will usher in the latest chapter of the hookah bar saga. Bliss spent two months arguing his case while legislators negotiated the bill’s details. He says hundreds of supporters sent e-mails and made phone calls, including a regular customer who made the case for the bar from his deployment in Iraq. “We had quite a grass-roots campaign going on. It wasn’t just me and a couple of hookah bars raising hell,” Bliss said.
Bliss thought he’d won the support of Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, D-Orange. He said he worked with her assistant to create an exemption. On the evening the bill passed the Senate, Kinnaird called and told him she had not introduced the exemption at the request of a sponsor.
Bliss was stunned. He told her she was, in effect, closing down a viable business. Kinnaird’s response wasn’t what he wanted to hear. “This is as close to a quote as I can [recall] — ‘I know it will be difficult.’
“I said, ma’am, you don’t know anything. You’re sitting in an office paid for by people like me and you’re telling me you’re going to take my business away — tough noogies?”
Kinnaird stands by her support of the smoking ban. She said she tried hard to help Bliss, knowing he’d put his life savings and vision into the business. “But when I went to the sponsor of the bill, Dr. [William] Purcell [D-Anson], he asked me not to put it in because he said it would weaken the bill.”
Kinnaird said she also heard from medical professionals who were opposed to an exemption they believe would encourage young people to start using tobacco. “We always like to have vigorous businesses in our community, but of course when you have to weigh in the balance one part of the good that it’s going to do as opposed to the other, then sometimes that’s what happens,” Kinnaird said.
When told of Bliss’ plan to defy the law, Kinnaird said it’s his choice to make. “I have nothing to do with that. He’s a private citizen and can do whatever he wants. It does not involve me in any way,” she said.
Bliss’ last stand may come in a courtroom. He’s talking with hookah bar owners in Asheville, Fayetteville, Winston-Salem, and Boone about pooling funds to hire an attorney to fight the law.
Donna Martinez is a contributor to Carolina Journal and co-host of Carolina Journal Radio.