Grimsby's owner appeals to Board of Health
Published on October 28th, 1998
STONEHAM, MA - The owner of J.J. Grimsby's appeared before the Board of Health on Tuesday night to explain the difficulties that his restaurant has been experiencing since the smoking ban went into effect on September 30.
As explained in an Independent article last week, Bob McAree claims that business has taken a nosedive in recent weeks and blames the downward trend on the loss of smoking customers.
"There's been a pretty dramatic decrease in sales," McAree told the board. "We were told not to worry back in May (when the board took its vote to ban smoking in public restaurants). We have 65 employees as well as myself who are depending on this business. It's (the ban) happening at a very difficult time."
He told board members that he had purchased the rights to the business last year and has, along with his wife, worked diligently to keep up with bills for the "highly leveraged" restaurant.
The smoking ban has cut J.J. Grimsby's after dinner sales by about 50 percent, McAree said, and has put his workers' jobs and his ownership of the establishment in serious jeopardy. As an indicator of just how many customers the restaurant is losing, he told the board that lottery sales have fallen off by about $5,000 a week.
"We (he and his wife) find ourselves fortunate and we feel responsible to the people that work for us," he said. "We've got a good reputation in town, but it's not enough at this point."
Tobacco Coordinator Ruth Brophy explained to McAree as well as to the board that a growing number of surrounding communities have endorsed similar bans and, while the effects at first may be drastic, statistics have shown that business at restaurants similar to J.J. Grimsby's eventually rebound back to normal.
According to the owner, however, he may not be able to wait for a future return and offered a solution to board members. McAree said that his business could accommodate both smokers and non-smokers in separate portions of his restaurant. The lounge portion could be closed off from the dining room with a solid door, he said. Both portions of the building are already equipped with separate ventilation systems.
"There's got to be a common ground on any issue," McAree pleaded with the board. "In a good economy like this, business shouldn't be like this."
Brophy disagreed with the owner's claim that the smoking ban was the lone cause of the loss of business.
"The bottom line is there are many factors that affect your business. It's a bigger picture and you have to look at all the variables," she said. "We certainly don't want to see your business struggling."
Brophy also said that she questioned the timing of McAree's filing for a hearing with the board. How could he possibly see that business was going sour just eight days after the ban went into effect, she asked.
McAree explained that he is at the restaurant every day and immediately saw a loss of business.
"I tried to make my feelings as clear as possible at the time," he said of the May public hearing. Of Brophy's participation at that meeting in which she quoted statistics from other towns, he said, "That evening, we heard a lot of statistics from a lot of towns... Those figures, to this day, I don't agree with."
The board decided to have Brophy investigate the possibility of a variance. She will report back to the board at its November meeting.
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