Cigar Smoke Lawsuit Raises Caution for Carrboro's South Green Businesses

Posted by Brighton McConnell | May 10, 2023 | Business, Instagram

On February 27, patrons subscribed to emails from Coronato Pizza received a strange message.

The Carrboro pizza restaurant said it was closing its dining room operations indefinitely to visitors. The brief email from Chef and Owner Teddy Diggs and his staff said the decision came from "circumstances that are out of our control." They encouraged customers to continue ordering take-out meals, thanked them for their patience, and said, "We look forward to continuing to serve you in the best and safest ways possible."

Through a lawsuit, the restaurant's reasoning is becoming clearer. As first reported by WRAL, the Diggs Restaurant Group, LLC that runs Coronato filed a lawsuit against the nonprofit operating the Oasis Cigar Lounge, which is in a neighboring space of the South Green shopping center. The pizza restaurant claims that it has lost business and some staffers have suffered negative health effects as a result of secondhand smoke coming from the cigar bar. Coronato's owners are also suing Woodhill NC, LCC, which owns the shopping center and manages the commercial space.

The pizza restaurant, which opened in its space in 2019, alleges that secondhand smoke began to create an odor inside its dining room after Oasis Cigar Lounge opened in August 2022. According to WRAL, the lawsuit says Coronato met with Woodhill leadership in September 2022 to demonstrate the issue and explore solutions — with Woodhill's Gary Hill acknowledging the secondhand smoke odor and offering some mitigation efforts.

Coronato says, however, that the steps taken by Woodhill and Oasis are not enough and the aftereffects of cigars next door continued to affect employees and customers, claiming in the lawsuit it's given them "headaches, sinus and eye irritation." After still experiencing the odor and health effects in the winter of 2022 and contacting Woodhill again, Diggs alleges the management's response was that enough mitigation was done to improve the air quality. The restaurant then sought third-party help, hiring a private company to conduct an air quality test over two weeks and confirming the secondhand smoke levels.

Diggs shared a message to Coronato customers on April 24, confirming some details listed in the lawsuit — but not mentioning the litigation.

For several months, Coronato has been trying to deal with the intrusion of secondhand smoke into our restaurant space. Professional air quality testing has deemed that our air contains a high concentration of hazardous pollutants that are related to tobacco smoke. We have been experiencing this situation for some time, but after the analysis of significant professional testing we felt that it was unacceptable for us to continue to operate our business as usual. Unfortunately, our continued attempts to resolve this issue with relative parties have proved unsuccessful thus far. Therefore, our dining room will remain closed for the foreseeable future. We believe that closing our dining room allows us to protect the public from dangerous SHS toxins, while also allowing us to manage the restaurant in a way that mitigates the negative health risks for those of us who are working in the space.

This challenging time presents the Coronato staff and ownership with the same uncertainty that we felt during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are grateful that our community showed up and supported us through those difficult years when we were only able to serve take-out – thank you! Today, we find ourselves in the same uncomfortable position where take-out is our only reasonable option for service. We appreciate your continued and conscious support of our family business, Coronato.

The message also stated that the pizza restaurant was speaking only to their experience and not other South Green businesses. After being contacted by Chapelboro, Diggs said he's advised to refrain from further comments and pointed to his prior statements on the lawsuit.

The Oasis Cigar Club's leadership declined to comment directly to Chapelboro, but shared a statement with WRAL on the matter.

"The Oasis Cigar Club has always sought to be good neighbors," it reads. "It has extensive and expensive investments geared to mitigate the smoke in its space. There are four Industrial Strength Air Purification Units in the business. There are Ozone filters in the unit, and the HVAC units have been rerouted to negative air pressure, keeping all of the air inside. At this point, Oasis is exploring all of its legal options."

"We have taken significant steps," Gary Hill of Woodhill NC said in a statement, "to ensure proper ventilation between tenants which include the installation of commercial grade air cleaners, carbon filters, and an ozone generator. We are working with Coronato Pizza and their attorney to respond to the lawsuit provided to us on April 14, 2023."

Coronato Pizza's dining room has been closed since February, when its owners decided against exposing customers to secondhand smoke levels they claim come from next door.

While no other businesses in South Green are taking part in the lawsuit, the topic of cigar and cigarette odor has created caution and consciousness between some other owners and employees.

Kathy Loredo is an employee of Deluxe Cleaners, who is the tenant on the other side of the Oasis Cigar Club. Loredo, who began working at the dry-cleaning service in November, said she was concerned about the effects on other businesses when the story of the lawsuit broke.

"When I saw it on the news, I [said], "Oh Lord, we’re going to get the ripple down effect,'" Loredo told Chapelboro. "But really only two people have asked [about it.]"

Loredo said she's never eaten at Coronato's, so she could not speak to the odor there. But she said she's never smelled cigar smoke in the Deluxe Cleaner space that shares a wall and is telling customers that.

"I just reassure them that I’ve never smelled smoke," she said.

Deluxe Cleaners is open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m., whereas the Oasis Cigar Lounge is open from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. most evenings.

For Siddisee Hirpa, who runs another business that shares the building with the smoke bar but operates at different hours, she believes the time difference likely plays into not regularly smelling smoke. But she told Chapelboro there have been times where she's entered her space in South Green and noticed a lingering odor.

"I’m here sometimes late at night or I come in early in the morning to get things done," said Hirpa. "And I think there's been two or three times where I’ve come in and been like, ‘Oh, it smells like [smoke] in here.’ Honestly, I thought that I was just being sensitive to the smell. But I have [air fresheners] plugged in here because I’m perpetually worried that it won't smell good in here."

Hirpa said the one time she visited Oasis Cigar Lounge, it was shortly after the smoke bar opened. After going inside to drop off a welcome gift to the owner, she said she remembered not being able to shake its smell.

"As soon as I left there, I noticed that my entire body smelled like cigars and cigarettes," Hirpa said. "And I was only in there for about three minutes. The good thing was it was already the end of the day, so I just went home [and changed.]"

"I’m really concerned because I don't want my clients getting exposed to that kind of stuff," she added, "and I [personally] don't want to have to be dealing with that."

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