It’s been a week since Virginia joined 27 other states and the District of Columbia in banning smoking at bars and restaurants (except in outdoor patios, private clubs and separately ventilated rooms). Governor Tim Kaine was at Hamiltons’ at First & Main last Tuesday to celebrate the ban taking effect at an establishment that’s been smoke-free since it opened in 1996. Kaine himself should be celebrated for his sheer political will in successfully soldiering the ban through the General Assembly in a state that ranks fourth in the country for tobacco sales. But while the ban is big news for some—mostly the regular crowd of smokers at Miller’s (where Restaurantarama has always wondered how John D’earth can actually blow his trumpet through all the haze) December 1 was just another day for many local restaurants such as the Downtown Grille, Rapture and C&O, which went smoke-free well in advance of the ban.
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Whether he’s full of hot air is for you to decide, but Gov. Tim Kaine is not full of smoke—at Hamiltons’ at First & Main or any other Virginia restaurant—after the statewide smoking ban that he announced and which went into effect one week ago. |
It wasn’t just another day for restaurateur Brent Lunnen, however. December 1 was his first day back as proprietor of the Outback Steakhouse in Albemarle Square —a franchise he established in 1994 and ran for 12 years before leaving for other things, including purchasing Big Jim’s Bar-b-que last year after matriarch Patricia “Mrs. Big Jim” Hope died. You may recall that Lunnen only bought the catering arm of Big Jim’s, selling the Big Jim’s restaurant on Angus Road to Juanita “Winky” Hunt, who renamed the place Winkys. Apropos of the smoking ban, Hunt told us she’d been a longtime server and manager of Big Jim’s until a doctor’s order forced her and her asthma to flee the restaurant’s smoke. After taking over as owner in 2008, she imposed a nonsmoking policy.
Per Lunnen’s agreement with Outback, his wife, Lydia, will run day-to-day operations of Big Jim’s along with the company’s longtime cooks.
“I actually sold her 51 percent last July, because you have to be a majority minority-owned business to get contracts with VDOT and UVA,” says Lunnen.
On his first day back at the home of the Bloomin’ Onion, Lunnen told us he was a little overwhelmed learning the new menu, but felt confident with his staff, many of whom are the same people he trained a decade ago.
“They’ve had two limited partners since I left that didn’t work out. They made me a sweet deal, and it was time to come back.”
As for starting back on the same day as the smoking ban, Lunnen says it was not an issue. “Outback went smoke-free on November 1.”
Hot tip on HotCakes
If you’ve heard rumors that Hotcakes is leaving Barracks Road, you can rest easy. Spokesperson Amy Birdwell who told us that losing the lease had been a recent possibility due to a significant increase in rent. Thanks in part, however, to public outrage from loyal patrons—some of whom contacted the shopping center’s management company, Federal Realty—says Birdwell, Hotcakes negotiated a new lease and is staying put.
