Suburban Inn: Cuyahoga County’s Worst Smoking Ban Violator

• Depressing sign.

There are bars smokers speak about in hushed tones, gin joints and dives and dumps they hold in reverence for when they want a puff with their sip. For the nicotine-addled, the smell of cigarette smoke lingering around a bar brings back fond memories when you could light up over your Coors Light. For the rest of the public, the vast majority of which welcomed Ohio’s smoking ban with applause, the whiff of cigarettes brings back much different memories.

But those bars — the ones where you notice half cups of water sitting in front of patrons, the water dark and murky from cigarette ash — still exist. The owners have decided to give a big middle finger to the state. Take the fines, avoid the fines, try to scam the fines… they’re just not playing along.

Of course, the state has inspectors out, and more often than not they catch the smoking violators. And when they do there’s money to be paid. Maybe after enough dough is taken from the bar’s coffers, the owners decide it’s not worth it to pony up the fines. Maybe they get more careful. Or, maybe they keep doing what they’re doing and refuse to be coy about their pro-smoking stance.

The Suburban Inn in Middleburgh Heights falls into the latter category.

This article appears in Aug 18-24, 2010.