Junior’s Tavern owner Greg Arata once presided over arguably the smokiest bar in town. Now that Junior’s has become a private club and moved to a new nonsmoking location on 30 E. Broadway (300 South), he says he doesn’t miss the haze at all. “I can’t stand smoke,” Arata said.
nnWe decided we weren’t going to do smoking when I left [the old Junior’s location]. It was starting to really irritate me, and I kept getting a lot of comments from people who just wouldn’t come in. You know, ‘I like your bar but it’s too smoky.’ … Smokers don’t really realize just how intrusive it is. They just look at it as part of the bar, which it was for years, but now I think people really get tired of it.