Smoke-Free Mall in NOVA? We Wish.

Even in the shopping malls that claim to be smoke-free, they often are not because some of the restaurants inside the mall allow smoking. Take Tysons Corner Center. The mall is smoke free, but most of the restaurants have smoking areas, and they tend to be toward the large mall walkways. In between the movie theatres and the children's play area, there is a TGIF restaurant which allows smoking in the area by the walkways.
Smoke often drifts out into the main walkway so it is nearly impossible to miss it. The same is true for the outside steps where smoking is allowed at Tysons and other malls. It would be nice for those of us who don't want to breathe smoke, or have our children breathe it, if malls and restaurants would voluntarily ban smoking all together in their establishments.

Montgomery County bans smoking in bars and restaurants and the businesses seem to be doing fine. McLean Family Restaurant banned smoking a few years ago and the manager tells me it's helped his business.

And, I just heard McLean's McKeever's Pub has gone smoke free. On a dining guide website, an entry in 2002 said this : "The only downside to McKeever's is that you must be able to tolerate smoke. It's unavoidable and your clothes WILL need washing afterwards. "
Several other reviews mentioned the thick smoke. Maybe that's why the restaurant banned smoking... bad publicity! The new policy apparently hasn't hurt business there. I heard a father taking about how great the new smoke-free McKeevers is now. I'll have to try it out.

My family and I had banned the Pub because of the smoke.

LET US KNOW ABOUT GOOD SMOKE-FREE RESTAURANTS IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA!

If you're looking for a smoke-free restaurant in Northern Virginia or elsewhere, here's a useful website: www.smokefreeworld.com/va.shtml.