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LEXINGTON — Drive down Main Street on a sunny summer day and brightly colored pig statues smile at you from every corner — fat pink pigs in wild costumes, standing tall and waving welcome. Roll down your window and you’ll know why Lexington is, for many, the barbecue capital of the world. You can smell the pulled pork, spice and vinegar for miles.

It’s the smell of Southern tradition — secret family recipes, waitresses who smile and call you “sugar.”

But these days, in many of the city’s most popular restaurants, customers say the air is sweeter for what you won’t smell: cigarettes.

“We went no smoking in April,” says Scott Cope, owner of Smokey Joe’s Barbecue. “And I’ve had people come up to me every day since to congratulate and thank me.”

Cope is one of four restaurant owners who ditched their smoking sections April 2, during the state’s “Kick Butts” event sponsored by The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

“For me, I think I just decided we’re a family restaurant,” Cope says. “And there’s no room for smoking in a family restaurant.”

For Cope, it wasn’t an easy decision. He was a smoker for years. His father, “Smokey” Joe Cope, earned the name — he smoked five packs a day when he founded the restaurant in 1973.

“It’s taken a real toll on his health,” Scott Cope says. “I don’t know if he ever thought the restaurant would be smoke-free, but I’m sure he wishes he’d never touched those cigarettes now.”

Some say the ban has helped them curb their habits.

“When the bars said you couldn’t smoke, I’d just go outside,” says Jim Fox, 40. “Then the bowling alley said no smoking, and I had to cut back to go out some place. Now, it’s my favorite restaurant and so I’ve just decided I’ve got to quit. I can’t do it anywhere anymore.”

Ellen Richards says she began coming to Smokey Joe’s only after it went smoke-free. The 70-year-old smoked for 30 years before quitting after lung surgery. She now takes oxygen for hours a day and can’t be around cigarettes.

“I think if it gets people to stop smoking before they have troubles like I’ve had, it’s a great thing,” Richards says. “If my generation had been smarter, we would have told these businesses to cut it out years ago.”

At John Wayne’s Lexington Barbecue, owner Tim Myers says he went smoke-free because customers demanded it.

“People requested it over and over again,” Myers says. “We had our smoking section at the front, and people would have to walk through it to get to nonsmoking. There were a lot of complaints.”

Myers knew some wouldn’t like the change — but he finally decided to do something. He took a vote.

“We worked with the Davidson County Health Department and we got some survey cards,” Myers says. “We made sure everyone old enough to smoke was given one. It came back with 82 percent saying they would come back if we went nonsmoking.”

It was still a scary proposition, Myers says. Many barbecue customers expected a laid-back atmosphere with few rules or formalities.

Wanting strength in numbers, he called up some restaurants — Smokey Joe’s among them. Would they go smoke-free if he did? Most said yes. Myers put some ashtrays outside, announced the change and crossed his fingers.

How’d it go?

“The first day we did it, business was up 15 percent,” Myers says. “We saw people we hadn’t seen in a long time — especially some older people who had trouble breathing. A lot of children and families. Groups coming in after church. It’s been great.”

Some people did stop coming — but you’d never know it from the lunch time rush at John Wayne’s these days. Those grabbing stools at the long front counter say they love the change.

“I love this place,” says Deborah McGirty, 34. “But I’ll tell you I did stop coming after I had kids cause I just didn’t want them around all that smoke. You’d leave here smelling like it, like it was a bar.”

That’s a common sentiment, according to H. Kent Craig, who runs a popular North Carolina barbecue Web site from his home in Cary. He reviews barbecue from across the state and delves into the culture of barbecue, which he says has always been family-oriented.

“Barbecue is not expensive, it’s served family-style and there’s usually no alcohol in a barbecue restaurant,” Craig says. “When more people smoked, smoking and barbecue went together. But now we’re all more health-conscious, and you don’t smoke in family places. So, I think it’s natural these places aren’t allowing smoking anymore.”

Susan Welborn says whatever the reason, she’s happy with the change. She’s been a regular at John Wayne’s for 12 years and doesn’t miss the days of walking through smoke clouds to be seated.

“The air is fresh now, you can breathe,” Welborn says. “You can smell the food, and that’s a better smell.”

Contact Joe Killian at 883-4422, Ext. 228, or joe.killian@news-record.com