{"id":119704,"date":"2026-06-30T20:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T20:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/119704\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T20:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T20:30:10","slug":"rexs-rendezvous-in-warsaw-goes-smoke-free-beginning-wednesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/119704\/","title":{"rendered":"Rex\u2019s Rendezvous in Warsaw goes smoke-free beginning Wednesday"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Crystal Watters (L) is pictured with her father, Robin Watters, inside the family business at Rex’s Rendezvous in Warsaw. News Now Warsaw photo by Dan Spalding.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw<\/p>\n

WARSAW \u2014 If you feel the Earth move a little on Wednesday, the epicenter might be originating at Rex\u2019s Rendezvous.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when the oldest bar in Koscicusko County goes smoke-free.<\/p>\n

The South Buffalo Street tavern has been a mainstay in the bar scene for decades,<\/p>\n

It was opened by Rex Watters some 49 years ago. The family business was then eventually run by his son, Robin, and five years ago, Robin\u2019s daughter, Crystal Watters, began managing operations.<\/p>\n

Rex\u2019s was known for decades for a rough-and-tumble environment that featured occasional lingerie shows, live bands, and a smoky haze that hung in the air on Friday and Saturday nights as loud rock and roll pulsated out the front door and into the street.<\/p>\n

But on Wednesday, the ashtrays will disappear, replaced by signs alerting customers to the change.<\/p>\n

In recent years, Crystal has worked to refine the atmosphere to make it more inviting and friendly. The number of fights is now rare, and she\u2019s been known to put the brakes on arguments involving politics and race.<\/p>\n

She also started becoming more involved in the community and began to believe smoking had been limiting their potential sales.<\/p>\n

Indiana law restricts indoor smoking but exempts certain establishments, including bars.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, she convinced Robin to support a smoking ban.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t sit here and watch my business, my dad\u2019s business, my grandpa\u2019s legacy, sit empty when it shouldn\u2019t be. That doesn\u2019t do them any justice, she said. \u201cI want to see people eat and smile and drink and enjoy themselves, and if the only holdup to that is cigarette smoke, then it\u2019s time to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

The change was announced on the bar\u2019s Facebook page<\/a> a few weeks ago, and reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. More than 700 people liked the post, and another 300 loved it.<\/p>\n

Many of the comments mentioned not liking the smell of smoke that lingers in their clothes after a night at Rex\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is \u2014 by far \u2014 the most response of anything we\u2019ve ever posted,\u201d Watters said.<\/p>\n

Even before that, Watters said she knew it was the right thing to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most of her customers, she said, did not oppose the idea of a smoking ban and said they\u2019re OK with stepping outside for a cigarette since they already do it elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew after talking to neighbors and friends and family and community members that it was the right choice,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She said she believes the change will result in increased lunch sales.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery venue I\u2019ve talked to from the Michigan state line down to south of Indianapolis that has independently pulled indoor smoking, not one of them has had a bad experience,\u201d Watters said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Crystal Watters (L) is pictured with her father, Robin Watters, inside the family business at Rex’s Rendezvous in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[95],"tags":[59373,438,59374,18803,59375,182,59376,59377,59378,59379,59380,181],"class_list":["post-119704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-warsaw","tag-ashtrays","tag-business","tag-crystal-watters","tag-legacy","tag-new-policy","tag-poland","tag-rex-watters","tag-rexs-rendezvous","tag-robin-watters","tag-smell","tag-smoking-ban","tag-warsaw"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116840957868299127","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}