Smoking bastards

As an asthmatic, I'd been fairly keen on the ban on smoking in Dutch pubs. And as someone who wasn't too happy about having to burn all his clothes after a visit to the pub.

Wonderful. I'd be able to visit all those pubs I'd been avoiding because of the stench an an inability to draw breath. The fun was shortlived. Many pubs are simply ignoring the ban.

Who do I despise more? The nicotine addicts too lazy to walk outside to light up? The landlords who are happy to indulge them? Or the supine authorities who can't can't be arsed to enforce the law? I'm still thinking about it.

This evening I found the first that was in my Amsterdam Pub Guide that was flouting the law. Was in the guide I repeat. Because it isn't any more. I won't tell you which it was. Not because I don't want them to be prosecuted. I do. But because I don't want to provide a guide to illegal smoking pubs.

The coffee shop around the corner, quite dependent on smoking for its existence, complies with the ban. If they didn't, I bet they'd have a load more shit than a shitty pub that does just ignore the law. How come pubs can get away with it?

I'll remove any pub from my Dutch guides that I discover allows smoking. Simple as that. Anywhere that ignores the law and the health of its staff and customers doesn't deserve inclusion.

Rookvrij

Dutch pubs are scheduled to go smoke-free on July 1st. I say scheduled, because some landlords are still trying to fight the decision.

There was an item on the local news last night about the objections from the trade. It was claimed that the new rules would be disastrous for small pubs, of which Amsterdam has hundreds. The location they'd chosen to illustrate the point was the Pilsener Club. Sure enough, it's pretty small. It's also pretty good and quite unusual. There's no bar counter. They sell a few decent beers, including Van Vollenhoven's Stout, and have a good range of jenevers. Now here's the irony. The reason I don't visit it more often is because it's unbearably smoky.

Just how smoky was demonstrated very well. The walls are dark brown, but they moved a picture aside to show the original colour: pale cream. Once smoking has been banned, how are brown cafés going to become brown? Until now they've relied on customer-supplied nicotine staining. Sounds like an opportunity to me for a new "nicotine-brown" shade of paint. Or are we going to have to start calling Amsterdam's traditional pubs cream cafés?