To dry by exposing to smoke; to expose to smoke.
I have never understood what attracts people in New York to outdoor dining. While sitting at a table on a sidewalk I find myself inhaling truck exhaust and bus fumes, and I must occasionally confront a particularly friendly and/or not-so-friendly self-invited guest.
When I lived on the West Side I vividly remember sitting at an outdoor place and being served a dinner of seafood and a salad, only to have a portion of the salad grabbed by a hungry passer-by who ran off.
Similar incidents have occurred indoors but the invitations that outdoor dining extend to a range of nuisances makes it seem like a phyrric enjoyment.
Outdoor dining extends the floorspace of an establishment. Often times when outdoor dining is offered the doors and windows of the café or restaurant are opened wide. Outdoor patrons smoke cigarettes. Whether or not, under the city’s smoking ban, it is technically legal to smoke at outdoor tables I do not know, but it is a common occurance. With breezes and general air movement this has the effect of turning the indoor part of a place into a smoking establishment.
I recently came home with bloodshot eyes and a smelly shirt and it took me a while to realize that I had been indoors at a place where a half dozen people sitting 3 feet away were smoking like chimneys. It was not as bad as in years gone by, when a few moments spent inside a pub guaranteed that one’s clothing would smell like an ashtray and one would be teary-eyed from the fumes.
Nevertheless, as a non-smoking barfly I find myself maneuvering around a place, looking for wind-tunnels of clean air, when the doors are open and outdoor patrons light up.
