he familiar greeting of the hostess - ''Smoking or non?'' - is an act of revolt at a cozy Dorchester eatery, where Boston's restaurant smoking ban has been tossed in the ashcan.
Faced with the choice between economic calamity and civil disobedience, the manager of Nanina's, on Dorchester Avenue, has chosen to ignore the city's seven-week-old ordinance that restricts lighting up in restaurants.
The city's public health director is threatening a fine.
The president of the City Council, a Nanina's regular, meanwhile, is offering bountiful helpings of sympathy and support.
And the customers at Nanina's, a 32-year-old neighborhood Italian place where the waitresses call you ''Hon'' and the roast-turkey special goes for $5.75, are cheering their restaurateur revolutionaries.
''I think the ordinance is a disgrace,'' said Peter Larkin, 44, a self-employed contractor from Dorchester, who was finishing a lunchtime cup of coffee at Nanina's yesterday.
''It's an infringement on people's rights,'' he said. ''It's not fair for someone to make a rule that's going to inhibit you from carrying out your business as it should be.
''Look,'' he said. ''Where are all the customers?''
Judy Yanoolis, who has managed Nanina's for 28 years, knows where they are. They've gone to Quincy. They've gone to the barrooms. They're ordering takeout and eating where they can do what they want.
''I mean we are hurting,'' Yanoolis said yesterday. ''I don't know what to say. We tried it. We did it for two weeks and we saw the business starting to go down. It's either sink or swim.
''We didn't have a choice.''
So now her customers do. Again.
With Nanina's facing weekly receipts that are down $1,500 from pre-ordinance levels, customers can once again smoke a cigarette over their chicken parmigiana sandwiches.
Yanoolis said she met with city inspectors about an exemption from the ordinance and was informed instead of the estimated $10,000 in renovations it would take to bring the storefront eatery into compliance.
Under the rule, smoking is banned in all Boston establishments that serve food only, from neighborhood coffee shops to fast-food outlets. Smoking also is prohibited in the dining sections of restaurants that have bars. Smoking in the bar is permitted, however, if the bar section covers not more than one-third of the restaurant's total seating capacity, and if the section is separated from nonsmoking sections by a 6-foot buffer zone or a floor-to-ceiling barrier.
Nanina's would need a full, working bar and a buffer zone to comply, a project its operators say is prohibitively expensive.
After seeing regular customers of 20 years drift away, they chose to turn a back room into the new smoking section.
John M. Auerbach, Boston's public health commissioner, said Nanina's can expect a warning and then an initial $300 fine if it continues to defy the ordinance.
''I'm sorry to hear that they're doing that, and we'll have to take some action to make sure that they stop,'' Auerbach said. ''They should spend their energy marketing the restaurant to nonsmokers. ''
A popular lunch spot for judges and plumbers, teachers and pensioners, Nanina's also has friends in high places.
Among them is Boston City Council President James M. Kelly. He opposed the ordinance that Mayor Thomas M. Menino passed under the Public Health Commission without the need for City Council approval.
''If they have to do that to stay in business, that is something that I would support,'' Kelly said. ''I'm not sure that is going to keep them out of trouble, but Nanina's is a great little restaurant and I'm not bothered if smoking is going on there.''
Mickey Venere, a Nanina's waitress for 28 years who has seen her weekly tips of between $400 and $600 halved by the loss of business, said she will continue asking customers if they would like to sit in the smoking or nonsmoking section.
''I'm a single woman taking care of a big mortgage and bills and I can't go on much longer than this,'' Venere said. ''It's sad. I hate to see this happen because of cigarettes. It's just not fair.''
Eileen McNamara
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