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"Now instead of cigarettes you can smell everyone's B.O.," bartender Jeremiah Blankenship said.

The Wednesday night bar crowd was stable and no smaller than usual, Blankenship said. With only one nonsmoker present, the patrons grumbled.

"But that was it," he said.

For Juneau police it's business as usual, with no extra patrols made on Wednesday. Sgt. Dave Campbell said the force fit the smoking ban into its already busy schedule in proportion to its overall mission of protecting first life, then property and then dealing with general infractions.

Smoking in bars and restaurants is now an infraction, Campbell said.

Owner Timos Giamakidis said the smoking area was not near the restaurant's dining room and is a private club separate from the diner.

Eventually a violation will cost business owners money. But for now, police say there is no strict guideline for smoking tickets and officers get to use their own discretion on whether to issue a warning or a citation, which brings a fine of $50 to $300.

"There will be an education period followed by citations," Campbell said.

In the first morning of the ban, the crowd at the Lucky Lady was smaller than normal.

"It was more quiet today," longtime bartender Marge Buckner said. The Lucky's morning coffee crowd has strayed and she thinks it's because of the smoking ban.

"I think it sucks," she said. "I've been smoking for 45 years and no one asked me."

Thursday afternoon seven people were in the bar. Several complained the smoking ban came from the Juneau Assembly and not a vote of the people.

One patron left a card to hold his place while out smoking.

"Gone to smoke don't take my drink," it said.

Two days into the ban, Buckner said she doesn't know how long the slowdown will last, but she's looking forward to the return of tourist season and bar customers that don't expect to smoke.

"They're already used to it," she said.

The Imperial Bar spent the first day of the ban closed for cleaning. Owner Rob Daniels said bar owners need business receipts from one winter and one summer to understand what effect the smoking ban will have.

"It's too early to tell if this will help us, or hurt us," he said.

Business at Auke Bay's lone bar was down 75 percent Wednesday night, according to Squires Rest bartender Samantha Brown. Her bar had two customers from 10 p.m. to midnight, she said. Those who came to the bar knew to smoke outside and no one had to be reminded, she said.

Wednesday is traditionally a live music night at Squires and its biggest night of the week.

"The band checked in at 9:15 p.m. and I said, 'No way, guys,'" Brown said. "In 2.5 years it was the deadest night I ever had."

Charlie Rowe is a manager at McCoy's Tavern in Olympia, Washington's capital of similar size and culture. Olympia launched a similar ban two years ago.

"At first business dropped," Rowe said. "Then they all came back."

He said a few bars in Olympia suffered but that most eventually returned to a normal pace.

Before the ban, McCoy's was known as a place for hard drinking and smoking, day or night. Rowe said after the ban started in December 2005, new faces showed up at the tavern and within four months the long-timers returned to their barstools.

"They just go out and smoke," he said.

As for Blankenship at the Alaskan Bar, given the choice between smelling cigarette smoke or B.O., he said he'd take the latter.

"At least B.O. is not carcinogenic," he said.

• Contact Greg Skinner at 523-2258 or greg.skinner@juneauempire.com.