Where You Can Smoke a Cigar in Tulsa

If you've ever wondered why one Tulsa cigar lounge pours bourbon and the shop down the street only offers coffee, the answer is in state law. Oklahoma's rules on smoking in public are fairly simple once you see how they fit together. Here's the short version for cigar smokers.

This is a plain-language summary, current as of October 2026. It isn't legal advice, and laws change, so check the sources at the end if you need the exact wording.

Indoors, the starting point is no

Oklahoma's Smoking in Public Places and Indoor Workplaces Act bans smoking in enclosed public places and indoor workplaces. That covers restaurants, which have had to be completely nonsmoking since 2006, along with offices and most other places you'd walk into. Lighting a cigar indoors is legal only where the law makes a specific exception.

Cigar bars

The exception cigar smokers care about covers stand-alone bars and cigar bars. To qualify, a business has to meet every one of these conditions.

• More than 60 percent of its gross sales come from alcohol.
• Nobody under 21 is allowed in, apart from a narrow exception for hired musicians.
• It doesn't share an entrance or an indoor space with a restaurant or another business.

That explains a lot about how Tulsa's cigar bars with a full bar work. They're 21 and up, they have their own entrance, and the bar is a big part of the business, not a side counter.

Tobacco shops

A second exception covers retail tobacco stores. A shop qualifies if it mainly sells tobacco and smoking accessories, with anything else being incidental, and if it doesn't sell or serve food or drinks to be consumed on site. That's why a cigar shop with a lounge will let you smoke in its chairs but won't pour you a drink. If it started serving, it would have to meet the cigar bar test instead.

Restaurant patios

Outdoor seating at restaurants falls outside the indoor ban, so the law allows smoking there, with one limit. You can't smoke within 15 feet of a public entrance or an air intake. A restaurant can still ban smoking on its patio as a house rule, and many do, so ask before you light up.

Parks, golf courses, and other city property

Oklahoma generally doesn't let cities pass smoking rules stricter than the state's. The big exception, added in 2013, is property a city owns or operates. Tulsa used it. Since 2017, tobacco and vapor products have been banned on all city property, indoors and outdoors, including parks, recreation areas, and city golf courses. Public streets and sidewalks are excluded. The fine runs from $10 to $100.

Private property and house rules

Tulsa's ordinance also says any business can ban tobacco on its own property, even where the law would allow it. Whether a lounge lets you bring in your own cigars is a house policy, not a law. Most expect you to buy from their humidor, and some allow outside cigars for a fee. Ask first.

You have to be 21

Federal law raised the minimum age to buy tobacco to 21 in December 2019, and Oklahoma changed its own law to match in 2020. Expect to show ID when you buy cigars, at any age.

Sources

• Smoking in Public Places and Indoor Workplaces Act, 63 O.S. § 1-1521 and following, especially §§ 1-1522, 1-1523, and 1-1527 (OSCN)
• Senate Bill 501 (2013), allowing cities to regulate smoking on city property (Oklahoma Senate)
• Tulsa Revised Ordinances, Title 27, Chapter 22, § 2208 (Municode)
• Senate Bill 1423 (2020), raising Oklahoma's tobacco age to 21 (Oklahoma Senate)