“You see what is needed and you do it. We’ve been doing a very good job,” Koole says. “People are becoming totally intolerant, and I’m sick of it.”

Allston resident and smoker Tyler Foster, a Rock Bottom patron, bemoans the increasing restrictions on smoking in public spaces.

“Smokers have rights, I guess. I don’t know that they do anymore,” she says. “It’s enough to make me stop smoking.”

But according to Lauren Meany, a bartender at Redline, smokers—many of them students—generate complaints among the bar’s older customers.

“When we fill up on a weekend night, about half of the 200 people in here are smoking. Older clientele complain about the smoke on busy nights,” Meany says.

Unhealthy...for Business?

Whether the ban will affect business in local taverns is unclear, but owners agree that the ordinance will create a slew of logistical problems.

At Grendel’s Den, Koole says the ban could present the problem of people drinking outside.

“We’re going to have a lot of smokers standing outside, and we’ll have to watch to make sure that they don’t bring their drinks out with them,” Koole says. Current city ordinances forbid the consumption of alcohol outdoors.

Rock Bottom patron Trista Kuhn says it will be hard to enjoy her drink without a cigarette in her hand.

“We won’t be able to bring our drinks outside with us, which is annoying because drinking and smoking go hand-in-hand by far,” Kuhn remarks.

Meany predicts that patrons returning from smoke breaks outside Redline will constitute a serious logistical problem—door attendants will have to check IDs multiple times and may have difficulty telling the difference between returning smokers and people waiting to get in.

“I’d assume we’d have to start some kind of stamping system or bracelets or something,” Meany says.

“It’s hard enough having to deal with fake IDs,” agrees Joe Sater, night manager of Central Square’s The Middle East. “How will we be able to enforce a smoking ban as well?”

Sater cited the devastating effects of similar smoking ordinances in other towns.