Down the Hatch: Butts outside

Mercury Lounge finally kicks the habit

As of January 1, Mercury Lounge last year’s Best of Tulsa winner in the “Best Bar for Smokers” category, is smokeless. They’ve still got a patio, so you can smoke outside, and they’ve still got the $8-a-box cigarette machine, but indoors is a smoke-free space. 

Last May, Free the Night, a campaign funded by the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust, put together an online survey for Mercury’s customers, 1,000 of which responded. As far as I can tell, Mercury Lounge only posted the survey once on their Facebook page, but it was shared 60-plus times, liked 90-plus, and was followed by a lot of colorful commentary. 

Some highlights (all typos and format inconsistencies sic):     

I’m a 2nd hand smoker and appreciate those who purchase cigarettes … the new tax on cigarettes will help our education system from failing.... so the way I see it the smoke friendly bar will help further education. What’s next televisions and a touch Tunes Jukebox?

I go to smoking bars, but I hate smelling like a bucket of assholes when I leave. I’d prefer non-smoking.

Take [cigarette emoji] out of bars? Why? We are all there killing are livers with each sip of whiskey. Let’s save both! Mercury Juice Bar is a local non smoking juice bar, because we care about everyone’s liver and lungs.... Offering: Green juices and chia seed pudding, $5.00 Wheat Grass Shots and Kombucha. #kale #organicforlife #fuckthat

I’ll fill out the survey when you make it clear whether you are lumping vapeing in with smoking or not when you consider your decision. (To which someone replied: Vaping is the popped collar of 2016.)

Stay home an drink, smoke, run naked if ya want!!! cheaper & safer that way..just my thoughts.

Anyway. 81 percent of the survey’s respondents said they would visit Mercury the same amount or more often if they went smoke-free. And 25 percent of respondents were smokers. 

So, Mercury made what appears to be a wise decision—go smoke free, retain its loyal customers, and likely gain some new or more frequent ones.

Fortunately, there are no televisions or touch-screen jukeboxes (the same ol’ fashioned CD juke is alive and well), and maybe most importantly, the $5 beer-and-shot combo is alive and well and the live music calendar is full.

When I bellied up to the bar for a PBR and shot of Jim Beam, some regulars were talking about the new no-smoking rules.

“I’m going to have to get used to this no smoking,” one said. 

“I don’t smoke so I’m already used to it. It’s nice,” said another.

“Well, it is nice!” agreed someone else. 

And then everyone went back to business as usual: drinking and playing on their phones and happy hour gossip. The awesomely bad taxidermy’d animals (one squirrel mounting another, a cross-eyed coyote, a chipmunk riding a snake) watched over the patrons as always—a little dusty, a little weird, not caring one way or the other about the absence of smoke. 

In “Down the Hatch,” assistant editor Liz Blood offers a look inside Tulsa’s many bars, pubs, saloons and gin joints. Send suggestions for future columns to liz@langdonpublishing.com or @lizblood on Twitter. For another sip, read Liz's article on Torero.