By Tom Nicholson 12/20/2002 Thank you, Delaware.

That's what Cecil County tavern and restaurant owners are saying this month as bar patrons flock across the border from Delaware. They've been coming here since a statewide ban on smoking in such establishments went into effect Nov. 27.

"Our business has definitely increased since the ban," said Paula Johnson, manager of Bentley's Restaurant on Route 40 in Elkton. "People from Delaware are coming in and saying the reason they're here is because they can't smoke in bars there."

Johnson said she estimates business at the bar and restaurant at Bentley's is up by 10 or 15 percent since Delaware imposed the smoking ban.

A sudden jump in sales is being reported from many of the county's bars and restaurants located near the Delaware border.

"Yes, business is up a bit here," said Sandy Wesley of Wesley's Restaurant on Route 273 near Fair Hill, just a few miles from Delaware. "It started out slowly and is picking up. People are saying they don't want to give their business to Newark (Del.) anymore, so they come here instead and that's fine with us."

In the southern part of the county, a steady stream of bar patrons from Delaware is coming down Routes 301 and 282 to bars at Warwick every weekend since the ban.

"I get eight to ten more customers on Friday nights now," said Kas Laird, a bartender at The Crows Nest at Warwick. "The guys that come here say it: they're here because they want to be able to have a smoke and a drink. It's helped our business for sure."

Meanwhile, a portion of profits are going up in smoke for some bar owners on the other side of the border since the ban.

"Is the ban affecting us? Honey, you guys in Maryland are getting all our business now, how do you think that's affecting us?" said Lori Parker, who's been a bartender at Just Muggs in Bear, Del., for 16 years.

-- Anonymous, December 22, 2002