Bill Would Allow New Cigar Bars To Open in Wisconsin
Existing cigar bars were exempt from the state’s indoor smoking ban.
Maduro Cigar Bar in Madison is one of fewer than two dozen tobacco bars in the state exempt from the indoor smoking ban for cigars and pipe tobacco only. Lorin Cox/WPR
When Wisconsin passed a statewide indoor-smoking ban in 2009, lawmakers included an exception for cigar bars that were already open at the time.
Since then, the state has not allowed any new tobacco bar licenses to be issued, but a bill in the Legislature would change that.
Gustafson told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that the licenses would come with stipulations that include only allowing indoor smoking for cigars and pipe tobacco — not cigarettes — and new establishments would not be allowed to also hold a retail food license.
“We had a lot of restaurants that had come to us and said, ‘We don’t want people thinking our industry is just going to become a bunch of smoking lounges, or, even worse, revert back to the pre-smoking ban days,’” Gustafson said. “It’s about the local municipalities, and if they are comfortable with it and their constituents want it, they should have that ability to do so.”
The Wisconsin Restaurant Association had opposed a previous version of the bill, but Gustafson said he’s taken their input to add new restrictions and bring them on board.
Health groups including the American Lung Association and UW Health continue to speak out against the legislation, raising concerns about the negative impacts smoking can have on customers and employees.
Gustafson believes people should be allowed to make their own choice about their health, and he doesn’t think it’s the government’s role to stop people from pursuing these opportunities.
A 2021 study in Harm Reduction Journal found that cigar smokers had elevated health risks compared to nonsmokers, but cigarette smokers had even higher risk than cigar smokers.
Those potential health impacts haven’t been a concern for Vanessa Shipley, owner of Maduro Cigar Bar in Madison.
She told “Wisconsin Today” that it hasn’t been a problem for her bartenders and those who patronize her business since it opened at the end of 1997.
“Everyone who works there knows exactly what they’re getting into,” Shipley said. “I had a bartender that worked for me years ago who did the Ironman. He was a big athlete, and even he really liked working in that space.”
Patrons gather at Maduro Cigar Bar in Madison to watch the 1982 film “Ivanhoe,” an annual New Year’s Day tradition at the indoor cigar and pipe smoking lounge. Lorin Cox/WPR
She and Gustafson see cigar lounges as a social gathering space that connect people over a hobby that they can’t enjoy at other bars.
“You already have one thing in common when you walk through the door: cigars,” Shipley said. “Having a lot of conversations with regulars and other customers over the years, we all agree that a cigar bar has a different kind of camaraderie.”
She said she wouldn’t want another cigar bar to open up across the street, but her positive relationships with her existing competitors have benefitted all of them.
“The cigar culture is a wonderful thing, and having more places around the state of Wisconsin would definitely be a good thing,” Shipley said. “I know the owners of both the other cigar bars in Madison. We’re friends. I frequent their establishments. They frequent mine. It’s definitely a cigar community.”
Gustafson said the bill is working its way through the committee process now in both the state Senate and Assembly, and he’s optimistic it will get to the floor for a vote by the early fall.
New bill would allow for more cigar bars in Wisconsin was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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