Metro

Bloomy celebrates smoking ban’s 10th birthday at Manhattan bar that was biggest foe

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BUTT SERIOUSLY: Bartender Andrew Fitzpatrick greets Mayor Bloomberg yesterday at the Old Town Bar, where business is up 20 percent since the old days of smoking. (
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They’ve seen the light.

Owners of the Old Town Bar — one of the city’s oldest taverns — yesterday hosted Mayor Bloomberg on the anniversary of his decade-old smoking ban in a bid to clear the air.

Turns out the smoking ban, which the bar’s owners feared would put them out of business, was actually good for their bottom line.

“I became converted to the mayor’s point of view,” said bar owner Gerard Meagher, standing next to Bloomberg at a press conference in the historic bar on East 18th Street.

After comparing his receipts from 2002 to 2012, Gerard estimated that business increased about 20 percent after the ban.

Meagher recalled complaining to a city official, “What are you guys doing? You’re going to put us out of business!”

The bar, which opened in 1892, was an outpost for the opposition as fearful bar owners around the city predicted their customers who smoked would vanish or flee to New Jersey.

Meagher’s brother, Matt, described the first months after the law was enacted in 2003 as an anxious time, when a cold winter and the new rules left many bar stools forlorn and empty.

“[But] the food business improved,” said Matt. “The smoke would really hurt the food business. It was kind of a haze in here.”

Veteran bartender Chip Sylvester used to tell disgruntled customers, “Don’t blame us — blame Bloomberg.”

But yesterday, Sylvester and bartender Andrew Fitzpatrick were happy to chat with Bloomberg.

Over time, they said, a new wave of customers started showing up at the Old Town — younger and more health-conscious.

“I think I’m more inclined to order food in bar restaurants because now you can smell the food,” said David Lee-Hin, 47, an IT consultant and patron since 1986. “In the past, you smelled cigarettes.”

There was also another upside for the owners — fewer cleaning bills. The bar’s massive mirrors didn’t have to be cleaned as frequently. Neither did the chandeliers.

For Bloomberg, the 10th anniversary of the law provided a platform for a victory lap and he made the most of it.

According to his figures, the number of bars and restaurants in the city jumped 47 percent between 2002 and 2011 and they employed 205,175 people, an increase of 48 percent.

“I think it’s safe to say when you look at the numbers the Smoke-Free Air Act has been one of the best things that ever happened to our bar, restaurant and tourism industry,” the mayor concluded.