WHO SAYS WE need laws to end smoking in Virginia restaurants?

All it took was one "little old lady" with an attitude to persuade Chris Savvides to outlaw the practice at the Black Angus Restaurant in Virginia Beach a couple of years ago.

He distinctly remembers the gray-haired woman who arrived one night when his steakhouse was full. Correction: The nonsmoking section was full, but a vacant table remained in the smoking area. When the woman was told that she could either sit with the smokers or wait for a nonsmoking table, she boldly exercised a third option.

She did an about-face and marched out.

"I banned smoking the next day," Savvides said. "I didn't want to lose business. That was two years ago, and it's been that way ever since."

Smart guy.

Statistics support his decision. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 21 percent of Americans over the age of 18 light up these days. Makes you wonder why any restaurateur would want to cater to a handful of future cancer patients at the expense of the rest of us.

Fact is, more and more eating establishments are trashing their ashtrays. In Virginia Beach, for instance, the number of smoke-free restaurants is on the rise. The city's restaurant association reports that there are about 560 nonsmoking establishments out of a total of about 900.

I caught up with Savvides by telephone Monday. He was in Richmond, keeping an eye on bills that would institute statewide bans on smoking in restaurants or enable localities to outlaw the practice. He opposes the legislation.

"I'm a free-enterprise person," he said. "I don't allow smoking in my restaurant." But he wonders why the government should tell others to follow suit.

A surprising number of politicians - governors, too - don't trust the free-market system. They're determined to meddle with it, even as voluntary smoking bans spread. These nanny government types seem to think hungry citizens aren't smart enough to seek out nonsmoking joints on their own.

They're wrong. Many of us refuse to eat in places with smoking sections, no matter how well ventilated they may be.

Oddly enough, the Virginia Beach Restaurant Association supports increased regulation.

"This was a very difficult decision on the association's part," said Flo McDaniel,

executive director. She said the industry wants to be sure there is a "level playing field" all across the state. They also want to protect employees' health.

"I worry more about the employees who work in restaurants," McDaniel fretted. "They don't have a lot of choice about the secondhand smoke the way diners do."

Geez, with so many nonsmoking restaurants, it can't be all that hard to find work in a smoke-free environment. Come to think of it, if workers shunned smoking the way most diners do, it would be added pressure to end the filthy practice.

Savvides insists that there are so many jobs in the industry, no one need work in a restaurant that allows smoking.

"We have a crisis in restaurants," he said flatly. "We don't have enough workers. I could hire 10 people today."

He says his problem is with employees who smoke on their breaks and come into the dining room reeking of tobacco.

"Maybe they should pass a law making it illegal for restaurant workers to smoke," he joked.

Please. Don't give them any ideas.

Kerry Dougherty, (757) 446-2306, kerry.dougherty@cox.net