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As Smoke Clears, Tobacco Maker Opens Lounge
The room is lined with vintage ashtrays, delicate lighters, matches and pens shaped like cigarettes. The scent, naturally, is of smoke. Chicago's smoking ban took effect this week, but it was hard to know that from inside the gleaming lounge along Milwaukee Avenue in a hip neighborhood on the North Side. Here, under glass, are thick jars of tobacco -- Oriental Rose, The Empress, The Earl -- poured lovingly into white smoking papers by tobacco's answer to the coffee shop barista. … Several antismoking advocates said the lounge, indeed, seemed to comply with the legal terms of the settlement, though some said they wondered whether it was truly meeting the intent of the agreement. ''Glamorizing tobacco use will encourage young people who are smokers to continue doing so, and it will encourage some young people who don't smoke to do so -- just because it's a glamorous, upscale place,'' said William V. Corr, executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. ''The question of whether this appeals to youth is a factual question we will have to watch.'' But Richard A. Daynard, a law professor at Northeastern University and president of the Tobacco Control Resource Center, said he was not bothered by the lounge, mostly because he believes the idea will not work. ''It's a gimmick,'' he said. ''I certainly would be surprised if it's still in business five years from now. The problem is that their clientele is not this, but mainly working class and poor people.''
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