Collegiate Times

Smoking will be banned from restaurants in Virginia beginning on Dec. 1, including hookah bars and lounges such as Blacksburg's She-Sha Cafe and Hookah Lounge.

Unlike many other smoking bans, such as a Washington, D.C., ordinance, Virginia's bill does not contain an exemption for hookah lounges, leaving She-Sha and owner Paul Santos in a curious position.

"It's a lot of reevaluation," Santos said. "There is no definite path right now, and I don't think there will be until the agencies figure out how they will enforce the law."

Gordon Hickey, press secretary for Gov. Tim Kaine, said there was never any intention to exempt hookah lounges.

"It's a health issue," Hickey said. "The idea is to improve people's health."

The law would not affect hookah bars and lounges if they stopped serving food.

"They would not be a restaurant," Hickey said.

Hickey said they could also separate smoking from non-smoking in the same way other restaurants plan to.

Santos said his restaurant is waiting on further developments before deciding how She-Sha will cope with the new regulations.

"The Virginia Health Department isn't sure how they're going to deal with it," Santos said.

He said he would contemplate many options once he studies the plan for enforcement.

One option is separating smoking from a non-smoking area of the restaurant.

"The other option is to do what any other restaurant has to do: Add a separate room with separate ventilation," Hickey said.

However, Santos said the enforcement of the rule has not been fleshed out.

"It just depends on what constitutes a separate area," Santos said. "The (Health) Department does have a frequently asked questions page, but it doesn't help that much."

Aladdin, a Richmond hookah bar, plans on adding a non-smoking room and separate ventilation system. Manager Azizeh Alhomsi said there is no choice.

"You've got to look at it in the long run," Alhomsi said. "Yes, it is expensive, but it is something we have got to do. It's not a choice we were given, but a law."

Alhomsi said the new ventilation system was not prohibitively expensive.

"Our ventilation system is very strong," Alhomsi said. "We have to have a very good ventilation system in hookah bars, even if the law didn't require it."

Santos said She-Sha would probably have trouble funding the new ventilation system.

"We're a small restaurant," Santos said. "It's a lot of stuff to do to a very small space."

Aladdin plans on creating a relatively small non-smoking room, as about 80 percent of its customers smoke hookah.

They are still in the process of reading through details of the law, as is Santos.

"If not a money commitment, it's a very large time commitment," Santos said. "We want to see how the Health Department is going to enforce the law before we dive into things."

Alhomsi said Aladdin never considered eliminating food from their establishment.

Other exemptions in the law allow for smoking in private clubs and outdoor areas of a restaurant not enclosed by a screen or windows.

All are options for the future of She-Sha.

"Not one is weighing more on the table," Santos said. "We are just figuring out which one is more cost effective and which one will appease our customers."

Virginia's law contains fewer exemptions than that of neighboring Washington, D.C.

Hookah bars, as well as any establishment that can prove it earns more than 10 percent of their annual revenue from tobacco sales, are exempt from the smoking ban in Washington D.C.