Dan Benstead takes a break from smoking to eat his dinner Nov. 9 at the High Maintenance Sports Bar. Photo by Ronda Churchill

Despite dire predictions by Nevada bar proprietors over the looming smoking ban, Paul Hennessey wants his fellow tavern owners to take a deep breath and relax.

The owner of the Hennessey's Tavern chain believes the impact of Question 5, approved by voters this month, will be negligible.

"I think a lot of people are overreacting to this," he said. "We went through this (smoking ban) in California, and people adapt pretty easily."

There are 11 Hennessey's Taverns in Southern California, and one recently opened in downtown Las Vegas.

He also owns Mickie Finnz and is constructing a lounge and a nightclub above the restaurants at Fremont Street and Las Vegas Boulevard.

Hennessey's properties might be better situated than some taverns in Nevada, however, as his businesses have patio areas where people can smoke and still be in compliance with the ban.

Question 5 forces owners to choose between serving food and kicking smokers outdoors. It beat out another smoking ban that was before voters that would have been less restrictive and was supported by bar and tavern owners.

Hennessey said liquor sales went up by 5 percent after the California law was implemented in 1998.

The same could happen with gambling revenues, as lunchers who want to eat and gamble without smoke could become new customers, he said.

Some restaurant owners already have made up their minds to get rid of food and have fired kitchen staff, Hennessey said. But he urged patience.

"If they just let it go a full month before they make a decision like ripping their kitchen out ... they might be surprised," Hennessey told the City Council last week.

Since Question 5 passed with 54 percent of the vote, tavern owners have weighed the consequences of satiating either hunger for food or desire for nicotine, and some have said they would close kitchens and lay off workers.

Lee Haney, spokeswoman for Smoke Free Coalition, which backed Question 4, predicted business could be hurt when the new state law goes into effect Dec. 8.

"Tavern owners, restaurants with slot machines, they feel this is going to have a very big detrimental effect," she said. "California and Nevada are very different places. Nowhere else in the country do you have gaming in bars and taverns."

She said people who want to smoke and gamble will choose neighborhood casinos. The smoking ban exempts casino floors.

"Smokers can go elsewhere where they can smoke and gamble," Haney said.

"Several years ago, where you had to go to the Strip to do that, maybe not. But neighborhood casinos are right in most people's neighborhood. They won't be severely impacted to go there."

Question 5 prohibits smoking in all indoor restaurants, bars and taverns that serve food; grocery stores and bakeries; retail establishments such as malls and department stores; and drug and convenience stores.

Several questions remain about the ordinance, such as who would enforce it, who would be liable for violations, and whether smoking could still occur at restaurants that straddle casino floors.

Hennessey said there were many dire predictions in California as the smoking ban loomed.

Like most bar owners in California, he had fought the ban. When liquor sales went up, he tried to find out why.

He couldn't figure it out until one day, a woman came up to him and told him that the smoke-free bar was great. Before the smoking ban, she couldn't go into the bar because she was allergic to smoke.

"I looked around and our regular customers were outside smoking," Hennessey said. "I realized, we didn't lose those people. ... What we did was gain people who wouldn't come in there because of smoke."

Judy Metz, owner of Sugar's Home Plate in Overton, banned smoking in her restaurant more than a year ago.

"It affected us for about six weeks,'' Metz said. "My gaming dropped off, but in that same time my restaurant business picked up. ... I have so many more people coming into the restaurant to eat than I did before.''

She said her loyal smoking customers come in, play a machine and, if they need a cigarette break, place their menu on the machine and go outside. For their convenience, Metz has chairs and ashtrays outside.

Now, more than a year into her smoking ban, Metz said the gaming revenue has just leveled off, and her restaurant business has continued its climb.

Six restaurants and two stand-alone bars are in the Overton area. But such a change might not be so simple for establishments in Las Vegas, Metz said.

"I do think the market's much tougher in Las Vegas,'' she said. "Here, about 60 percent of our population is Mormon. That makes a huge difference. And I think if my restaurant was in Las Vegas, it would have been tougher for me to change. But my decision would have been the same.''

Metz said she decided on the smoking ban after one of her waitresses, who had worked at the restaurant five years, died of lung cancer.

Six months after her death, a close friend of Metz's died from complications of lung cancer.

Metz said she discussed a smoking ban with her husband.

"I told him that if it killed our business, then I'd have to stop,'' she said. "I mean, I was scared when I did it. This is my livelihood, and I could have been sending it down the tubes. I had a number of smokers who had been coming in here for years, and they still come in, but it was scary.''

Some Las Vegas tavern owners have said they agree with Haney that Nevada's reaction to a smoking ban will be different than that in other states because of the gambling component.

At the same time, however, they've said they'll take Hennessey's advice and wait a month or two before deciding what to do with their kitchens.

Metz said smoking bans can work -- people just have to be willing to take a chance.