Near the intersection of Division and Damen Avenues, where the sidewalks are wide and the nightspots are plentiful, a bank sign flashes the 27-degree temperature on a recent Saturday night.
Still, Eric Jennings stands outside Wicker Park's relatively new sports lounge and tavern,
The Boundary, slowly smoking a cigarette.
"We [smokers are] forced to be ostracized, segregated from the rest of the population," says Jennings, 29. "But also, it's kind of a nice break. Even though I do smoke, I kind of like not being in a smoky bar."
After all the huffing and puffing, it seems like the smoking ban isn't such a big deal after all. A little more than two months into a clean-air Chicago bar scene, smokers are naturally cutting back, tavern managers and door staff are coping with the constant in-and-out, and nearly everyone is happy about no longer smelling like an ashtray after a night at the local watering hole.
"I don't think it's that big of a deal," Jennings adds. "I find that I don't smoke as much ... because it's a task. You have to get up, put your coat on, go outside."
Despite that extra effort, bargoers can be found huddled together on the weekends, lighting up outside The Boundary and nearby nightspots
Vintage Wine Bar and Restaurant and
Easy Bar.
They may be mingling over cocktails inside, but a social scene of its own is developing outside over cigarettes. Smokers find camaraderie getting their nicotine fix on the cold wintry streets -- talk about an icebreaker.
"People have their little smoking circles outside," says Easy Bar cocktail waitress Renee Ripp, 27. "You meet people you wouldn't necessarily meet inside because you all have the one thing in common."
Bart Vivian, manager at The Boundary, agrees: "It's just a very natural and obvious place to strike up a conversation because you have something instantly to talk about, especially when it's cold out.
"Everybody says ... 'Isn't this new law unfortunate: It's really cold and we're forced to come outside.' It just naturally leads to talking about whatever, and it's just a very easy way to meet people," says Vivian, 38.
Peter Isaac, 29, says he struck up a conversation with one couple outside The Boundary after they approached him during a smoke break and jokingly said, "Is this the VIP smokers area?"
Just like at some of the hottest nightclubs, ropes -- though not velvet here -- designate the 15-foot distance smokers must keep from a bar's entrance per the statewide ban. Two standing ashtrays also mark the smokers' area and keep the sidewalks clean.
"We call it 'the penalty box,'" Vivian says.
Keeping the air clean is one thing, but how does a popular pub deal with the influx of new customers and the constant smoke breaks of its current crowd, especially when a line forms?
Some doormen, such as the ones at The Boundary, may use hand stamps. Others make mental notes. For those heading outdoors, The Boundary even provides laminated seat-saver cards that look like a cigarette box and state "Out smoking: Be right back."
"People have been pretty cool about it because everybody's known that this ban is coming," Vivian says. "Everybody's sort of mentally prepared for it, especially the smokers -- which I am one of them -- so people get it. I think people waiting in line, the non-smokers, are just glad that those people have to go out and smoke."
And even some smokers are glad to be outside. "I like not going home smelling like an ashtray," says Bijou Hunt, 26. "I like that I smoke less."
A natural quitting aid and saving money on Febreze might be considered perks by some, but for others it's also the prospect of meeting new people.
"Strangers are just put together in the same circumstance and you just start talking," Vivian says, adding he made one connection, however brief. "So yeah, that side of it's been a strange little bonus I guess."
kmbudell@tribune.com
