As more bars snuff out smoking, where can you still light up in Nashville?

Rosie’s Twin Kegs owner Tia Mirenda thinks a true dive bar should be a little dirty and a lot smoky.

“If you’re not coming home and having to hang your pants on the front railing to get the smoke out, then were you really at a dive bar?” laughs Mirenda, who bought the small, no-frills bar on Thompson Lane in 2017.

Smoky bars are becoming unicorns in Nashville, but bar owners that allow smoking say it’s an integral part of their business model.

Mirenda did initially consider going smoke-free to draw in new customers at Rosie’s Twin Kegs, but ultimately, she didn’t want to alienate her longtime patrons, the majority of whom are smokers.

“I’d not just lose customers, but probably pretty much offend everybody that has kept that place going for the last 45 years,” Mirenda said. “Right now, in Nashville, that’s everybody’s biggest fear — who’s going to swoop in to their favorite watering hole and change everything.”

What's causing bars to snuff out smoking?

Indeed, Nashville’s bar scene has changed drastically in recent years. “New Nashville” has ushered in dozens of trendy bars that use fresh juices, homemade syrups and pricey liquors for craft cocktails that cost as much as $16. The days of cheap bottles of beer, playing darts and lighting up a cigarette inside a bar are quickly becoming a thing of the past.

The biggest catalyst for bars going smoke-free was in 2007, when the Non-Smoker Protection Act prohibited smoking in many enclosed public spaces, including restaurants. But an exemption in the law says venues can allow smoking if access is restricted to those 21 years and older. Smoking is also allowed on outdoor patios.

Many other states in the U.S. have banned smoking in bars entirely, mostly in the Midwest and on the East and West Coasts, including California and Michigan, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many states in the Southeast do not have comprehensive smoke-free laws, which would ban smoking in all indoor workplaces, restaurants and bars.

Some Nashville dive bars went smoke-free in recent years to upgrade and widen their customer base. Springwater adopted a smoke-free policy in 2016, and The Gold Rush remodeled and banned smoking that same year. The Gold Rush closed in February after general manager Frank Hall said the renovation and non-smoking policy hurt business and likely caused them to lose regular customers.

Meanwhile, East Nashville’s Edgefield Sports Bar & Grill, which does allow smoking, plans to close this summer.

'Two sides to it'

Andrew Piarrot, manager at The Villager Tavern in Hillsboro Village, said they considered going smoke-free a few years ago when the clientele was split about 50/50 between smokers and non-smokers. But Piarrot said he missed the boat and now the bar’s clientele is mostly smokers who want a place to enjoy a beer and play darts while they light up a cigarette.

“It would be foolish to think (smoking is) not a portion that’s important to the business. I like to think the most important part of our business is darts, but smoking is maybe the second or third,” Piarrot said.

Ian Wrigley, who bought Fleet Street Pub last year, said the Printers Alley bar draws in a lot of service industry workers late at night, and many of those customers smoke. He thinks he would lose customers if he were to ban smoking, although the bar doesn’t allow smoking until after 3 p.m. to boost the already-sizable lunch crowd.

“I feel like there are two sides to it: There are definitely people who will walk downstairs and realize it’s a smoking bar and will turn around. But there aren’t many of those folks and we have smoke eaters installed, so most of the time you really wouldn’t know we allow smoking unless it’s late at night and really busy.”

Wrigley plans to install more smoke eaters to help eliminate the smell even more.

“I’m putting in more smoke eaters because we serve really good food as well, and I don’t want the fact we allow smoking to put off people who want to come in and eat," he said. "There’s definitely a balance there. It’s one of the reasons I certainly wouldn’t allow smoking all day.”

Where you can still light up

Here are some other Nashville bars that allow smoking:

• 3 Crow Bar, 1024 Woodland St.
• Red Door Saloon, 1816 Division St. and 1010 Forrest Ave.
• Beyond the Edge, 112 S. 11th St.
• Smokey’s Little Upstairs Bar at Tenn 16, 1016 Woodland St.
• Santa’s Pub, 2225 Bransford Ave.
• Beer Sellar, 107 Church St.
• Batters Box Bar & Grill, 43 Hermitage Ave.
• Melrose Billiard Parlor (after 10 p.m.), 2600 8th Ave. S.
• Fran’s East Side, 2105 Greenwood Ave.
• Alley Pub, 7040 Hwy 70 S.

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Reach Lizzy Alfs at lalfs@tennessean.com or 615-726-5948 and on Twitter @lizzyalfs.