More local restaurants go smoke-free

I am a smoker and I understand where the non-smokers are coming from. I do not mind not smoking in the restaurant at all however, I do mind the comments that smokers do not have a right to stand on the curb and have a cigarette. The arrogant, haunty comments concerning an area OUTSIDE in the open public walkway not being a welcomed area to smoke is just plain ridiculous. We pay taxes just as you do and have a right to live our life as well. Until the smoker comes to the point where they want to quit, there needs to be common area where it is to be "okay". If you really want smokers off of the sidewalk, you had better be ready for the new prohibition. So the next time you feel really nasty hatred towards smokers outside in the cold smoking on a sidewalk that they had paid taxes on, you better think of what that nice lovely smokefree dinner would taste like if wine and alcohol isn't with it due to my hating drunk drivers/a-holes clogging up the restaurants.

Stop all this whining. Can you even hear yourselves think? You ALL sound like 2 yr.old children. This is about a restaurant changing policy , not an earth shattering occurance. Be you a smoker or a non-smoker please grow up, quit whining and move on with you life.

My husband and I frequent Rucker John's at monkey junction...if you've never been there, the food is great and always consistent. Since October, we've been enjoying their now smoke free environment. It's great. You can sit down and have a meal and not have to take a shower when you get home. The regular smokers still frequent the restaurant, they just smoke outside now. No big deal, you just have to stand up and go outside. I think more restaurants should move in this direction. Kudos to salt works and eddie romanelli's too, someone should create a website of smoke free dining in Wilmington. If you don't go to restaurants because they are smoke free...enjoy your evening on your couch smoking cigarettes, while we're all out eating great meals and spending time with friends.

Thank you! I always loved the place but despised the smoke. I also don't enjoy seeing employees hanging out in front of office buildings, dragging on their cigarettes. I think it's disgusting to get caught in a cloud of toxic waste, and have to smell like smoke the rest of the day. Maybe I should take a bottle of wine and slosh them with it when I walk by, and immerse them in my guilty pleasure.

I think I was in the Salt Works about ten years ago eating a late lunch with some friends from my work crowd. Some were smokers and some were not. I of course never thought about the smoking options, I was a big eater and knew some of the best places to go. Hence this writing... Not far away at a table in the restaurant there was a young couple and their small children. Admiring the close bond they had and the beautiful young couples love of and attention to their children it struck me that they were becoming uncomfortable. About apparently, some of those in our group smoking. The older of the children definitely didn't like the smell and was starting to complain. The younger of the children was just a baby that could no more speak of what was bothering him than drive a car. But it was obvious. From that day on I never took people I worked with to "family" places to eat, for fear of their smoking bothering someone like that tiny baby that could no more control that he was in that restaurant that day than complain about it in a comprehensible way. That baby didn't ask for a great big lungful of stale second hand smoke. And anyone that thinks this is OK is just a cruel ruthless villain that needs to be banned from the better eating establishments around this town and nation. Nuff said.

I am a smoker and have to agree with the non-smokers on this one. Smoking and eating really do not go together.

I am so happy to be able to add Salt Works to my list of local places to have a great burger! I have never smoked, however I have had open heart surgery to replace one of the valves in my heart. Second hand smoke is deadly for me and every other person on earth. Thanks again & God bless!

Now if we could just get laws made that prevent people from smoking right outside of a building! It doesn't do much good preventing people from smoking inside the building when I have to walk through your cancer cloud just to get to were I am going! UNCW is the worst! I hated going to class simply because all of the entrances are blocked by the smokers!

Kudos to Salt Works!!! Honestly....if you can't refrain from smoking long enough to eat, then you have deeper issues!!!

My feeling on it this -- if you want to ruin your own health by smoking, fine. I can respect that. But the thing about smoking is that it doesn't just affect the smoker. It affects those around them. And I'm sure some of you smokers or smoker's advocates reading this are thinking, "well, if you don't like it, eat somewhere else." But the thing that is wrong with that statement is THAT I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO. If I am going to go to a restaurant and choke, I would rather it be on the food than the cancer/emphysema/heart disease stick someone insists on having after their caesar salad. You want a cigarette after eating, THEN GET UP, WALK OUT, INGEST YOUR FIVE MINUTES OF SMOKE, and come back in!! You are entitled to that in this state just as much as I am entitled not to feel like I'm dying while you do.

One of the best burgers in Wilmington--and now it's a smoke free place? Even better. We wont miss you SMOKER--I hated coming out of there smelling like an ashtray. I swear my wife thought I was cheating on her when I ate there..."Were you at a bar?"

With the smoking rates declining all the time, it makes little sense for restaurants to allow smoking. Nobody with kids and most adult non-smokers don't want to be exposed to second hand smoke any more. It would be nice if a few bars would decide to serve the majority who don't smoke, instead of only catering to smokers.

I only patronize smoke free resturants. I'll be glad to add the Orignal Salt Works to my dining list. Way to go Bob!

What is great about NC is that 61 of the legislators had enough sense to NOT MANDATE smoke free restaurants. Instead, they let the owner choose, and the owner will make the right choice based on his/her clientèle. Let's keep it this way. Smoke free restaurants are becoming more and more present, even without legislation.

Sadly I will not be returning to the Original Salt Works. I have fond memories of the place, but I have been forced to take my businesss elsewhere.