Voo La Voo Cafe

The cafe is a small intimate place, most of the tables are outside and the live (Caribbean) music is great but apparently they allow people to smoke! A lady behind us decided to light a cigarette and it was awful-it’s too close for comfort, not to mention the tables aren’t really socially distanced for that. We are both allergic to smoke so we had to move across the street to another table. A staff member (possibly manager or owner?) later came to check up on us and we told her about the smoking and asked her if it was allowed. She feigned innocence and said she didn’t notice the smoker (who was literally sitting right by the entry) and that she must have been in the kitchen. She said, normally they don’t allow smoking unless it’s empty yet.... we saw one staff member bring out an ashtray for the smoker so obviously it’s allowed even when it’s not empty! (We were there after 12 pm and it was packed). We then observed the owner/manager walk over to the smoking table. It looked like she knew them or she was just super friendly. It also seemed as though they were discussing our smoking complaint as we caught them looking over at our table several times and laughing/smirking. It was such an unprofessional look. Even how she handled our complaint (nonchalantly) was a bit off-putting. The cafe should have a smoking section or ask guests to sit towards the outskirts of the cafe where there is more ventilation. The majority of the tables are under a tent and too close together. If the smoker had any couth she should have gotten up to go smoke far away from the tables or at least ask the closest guests near her if she could smoke. Needless to say breakfast was not enjoyable and we won’t be returning.

11/16/2020: In response to the owner’s comment below, though there may be no state law that prohibits smoking, it would be nice to alert your guests (perhaps a sign) that smoking is allowed (at least it would put guests on notice who are allergic and give them an opportunity to find or inquire about the supposed “non-smoking area”). Additionally, you yourself said you don’t normally allow it (interestingly, you made no mention of any state laws at the time as you have now). More importantly, when we moved to the table across the street, our server (who had difficulty finding our table at first) told us we weren’t technically allowed to sit there and that those seats weren’t really for your cafe (we had no idea and apologized). In fact, the guests that sat in that area after we arrived were from the Alchemist which further supports what our server stated. At least she was nice and understanding.