“Don Alonzo emerged from the Korean War unscathed,” writes Steve Dunleavy in the New York Post (5/25/03), “but he says Mayor Bloomberg has put a final nail in his coffin.”
He “looked over a sign that was an obituary for his restaurant. The sign read simply enough: ‘Alonzo’s will be closing its business on May 30th. ‘Thanks’ to Mayor Bloomberg!’
“’I’ve been in the restaurant business for 21 years and now I have pretty much lost it all. But worst of all I have lost people who are like my family,’ Don was saying.
“’Ten of the staff are gone. People very close to me. My chef for 15 years who has four kids, he has no job because I don’t have a restaurant anymore.’ Don blames Bloomberg’s draconian smoking ban on the demise of his restaurant.
“Alonzo’s on 45th Street near Second Avenue is an elegant Italian bistro that relied massively on business from people who work at the huge United Nations building complex.
“’Europeans, Africans, South Americans, they all smoke. They would come here for lunch, dinner, parties,’ Don said. ‘They don’t come here now. I had to tell them they cannot smoke. They stay at the United Nations where they can eat, drink and smoke.’
Photographer Jim Alcorn and I strolled a block away to the Vienna Café in the United Nations building where a courtly gentleman from Romania, named Ioan Roman, lit my cigarette. Ioan, is a retired colonel in the army of his homeland, a chemist and former director of nuclear, bacteriological and chemical warfare suppression.
“’I was a weapons inspector with UNMOVIC in Iraq until January this year,’ Ioan said.
“’I think all over the world in bars and restaurants, oh, about anywhere in the world, you could smoke in restaurants. Yes, you smoke in restaurants in Baghdad.’
“Ain’t freedom grand.”
