78 percent of Bedford restaurants listed as smoke-free

With 78 percent of restaurants in the city of Bedford classified as non-smoking, the small community leads the Central Virginia Health District for smoke-free options in restaurant dining.

Although that’s far short of Craig County’s 100 percent — it has only three restaurants — the city of Bedford is among localities at the top of the percentage list on Virginia Department of Health’s new addition to it’s Restaurant Inspection Web page.

The VDH announced it’s new “non-smoking” addition Monday.

About 67 percent of the restaurants statewide don’t allow smoking anywhere in the restaurant.

In the Central Virginia Health District, In Bedford County 71 percent of the restaurants are non-smoking; in Amherst County, 64 percent, Campbell County, 63 percent. Lynchburg came in at 58 percent, just a few points above Appomattox County’s 52 percent.

The Arlington Health Department, breaks out as a special area the Washington National Airport with its more than 20 restaurants — which is the reason that airport is listed as the other 100 percent non-smoking “locality.”

Gary Hagy, state director of the VDH division of food and environmental services, said with legislative efforts to ban smoking in restaurants, the public has shown increased awareness of and interest in which restaurants have smoking or ban it.

“It is a good fit to put it where we did,” said Hagy in an interview. “There’s a lot of interest in inspections, and we have the ability to collect the information and maintain it. It’s fairly simple to keep it up to date.”

Restaurant inspections are a popular VDH site, getting about 90,000 visits a month.

Because each of the state’s health districts has its own database for inspections, adding in the information about smoking wasn’t

difficult, said Hagy.

Central Virginia Health District, for example, has around 800 food service establishments. The smoking or non-smoking data is only for fast food and general service restaurants, said Hagy. That narrows it down to what diners are interested in if smoking is an issue. The Web site makes it possible to check local restaurants so diners can know before they get there.

Within smoking, the site allows further sorting by designated areas and smoking permitted anywhere.

Goode’s Country Kitchen is one of the Bedford area restaurants that allow smoking in designated areas, but owner Betty Goode says the numbers of customers who smoke have dropped over the years.

“There’s just a few that do,” she said, estimating “no more than three or four a day.”

She has a private room for groups that permit smoking, she said, and one for groups that do not.

Goode said that she doesn’t like smoking, and had hoped that the state would pass laws banning it from restaurants. “I don’t want it at all,” said Goode.

The Red Lobster in Lynchburg allows smoking in a designated area. Ryan Mason, manager said that Red Lobster restaurants have different designs, and when this one was opened about 20 years ago, it was set up that way. The smoking area is a separate one, vented, and near the bar, Mason said.

At Magnolia Foods in Lynchburg, Willie Payne, co-owner/manager with Lucy Cook, don’t allow smoking inside the restaurant. Payne said they don’t like cigarettes, and feel the smell of cigarettes interferes with smell of the food.

It’s been their experience, Payne said, that if you go into a restaurant with a designated smoking area, “the smoke doesn’t know it can’t come over to where we are.”