Ronnie and Bill Thomson bought Scotties nine years ago, after closing a dart shop they owned in Mountain View.

The Thomsons emigrated from Scotland more than 30 years ago.

"I always had a hankering for this business," Ronnie Thomson says in her Scottish brogue. Ronnie bartended in college and liked the atmosphere of a bar. She convinced her husband, Bill, to go into Scotties with her.

Now, after nine years in the business, the Thomsons are preparing for retirement.

"We started off with two customers. But the place just started to grow, and it's never been that slow in all these years," Ronnie says.

The couple renovated the space and brought the place up to code, and soon enough, the Thomsons set Scotties apart from any other bar by establishing it as a traditional Scottish dart bar.

Along the back wall is a row of dartboards that have seen many dart leagues and amateur dart players.

To this day, the bar only serves beer and wine and does not offer hard liquor like other bars.

The Thomsons set their bar apart even further when they decided to welcome smokers in their establishment after the state banned smoking in most indoor workplaces in 1995, including bars and casinos.

The couple received a permit from the city of Sunnyvale that allows smoking in their bar as long as they do not hire employees outside their immediate family, including bands, caterers and even janitors.

The Thomsons have to do all the work themselves: bartending, serving and cleaning the bathrooms. Ronnie says her son Drew is a big help.

State officials have said the ban is not meant to criminalize smoking but to give employees a workplace free of secondhand smoke, which has been linked to lung cancer, respiratory problems and other illnesses. Ronnie agrees with the spirit of the law but says, "The law is designed to protect employees, not customers. So if the customers choose to be in this environment, they have that right."

Sunnyvale resident Eleni O'Neill says she appreciates being able to smoke at Scotties. "Smoking is filthy and disgusting, but I smoke, so I like it," O'Neill says.

Though the freedom to smoke is a contributing factor, O'Neill says she comes to the bar for the cheap beer, the good friends and the owners. "If I come on a random night, someone I know will be here," O'Neill says.

Ted Rice, a smoker and a regular at Scotties, says he's been coming to the bar off and on for the eight years he's lived in Sunnyvale. "Sure, you can smoke and that's appealing, but a lot of people come here that don't smoke," Rice says.

George Sabolish, a Mountain View resident, is one of those people. He only smokes on rare occasions, and he doesn't even drink alcohol. The Thomsons know his usual drink of choice is a diet soda.

"I enjoy the mixture of people, and I like a good game of darts every now and then," Sabolish says. But he speculates that people come to Scotties for the smoking and then stay because they get to know Ronnie.

"Ronnie's the big mother hen. When somebody has a birthday, she gives him or her a cupcake. She's very loving," Sabolish says.

Scotties regular O'Neill agrees. "The Thomsons are like my parents. They wrote to me while I was in basic training for the Army. My own parents didn't even write to me," O'Neill says.

Ronnie says, "This is a safe place for younger people. Of course, I nag at them and make sure everyone has a ride home." Some people tell her that it's like being in their own living room with their own mother.

Kimi, a Scotties regular who preferred that her last name not be used, says Ronnie is her second mother. "Imagine a mom that is sweet and understanding but also serves you beer," she says. Ronnie says she'll miss the young people she's taken care of.

Ronnie's fans will miss her, too, when she and Bill retire from the business, but Scotties will still be around.

Taking over Scotties are Rick DaSilva, his brother Ed and his sister Tina, owners of Beefy's Cabin, the only other smokers bar in Sunnyvale, which closed at the end of March.

If the deal goes through, the DaSilvas will own Scotties and rename it Beefy's Cabin. The new Beefy's Cabin will be the only legal smoking bar in Sunnyvale and perhaps in the Bay Area.

Rick DaSilva says he plans to make very minimal changes to the bar. He will serve hard liquor, he says, to appeal to Beefy's Cabin regulars, who he hopes will frequent the new location.

Beefy's Cabin will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. The old Beefy's served many retirees in the community. Though DaSilva says his bar usually sees an older crowd, he looks forward to a mix of both older and younger generations at the new bar.

"I think the customers from both bars will make for a pretty diverse crowd. But since we're open all day, people will come and go, and I think the younger crowd will stay up later," DaSilva says.

The change will probably take place in April or May, with the Thomsons closing Scotties one night and the DaSilvas opening up Beefy's Cabin the next day.

DaSilva and his family have been in the bartending business since 1975, when they started the first Beefy's Cabin in Hong Kong, where they grew up. Since then, they have opened the bar in Sunnyvale and most recently another one in Las Vegas.

"We named the bar after our father, who passed away in Hong Kong," DaSilva says.

Beefy's regulars have been calling DaSilva's home asking when the new bar will open.

Regulars at Scotties are sad to see the Thomsons go but say they're glad that Beefy's Cabin will keep much of the atmosphere the same. Indeed, the only major change will be in the people who choose to come back and make a new home of an old bar.