Smoking Bars

As some of you may already know, I publish a directory of bars for Pittsburgh’s South Side. I do it for fun but I try and do it right. What I try and avoid is listing information about a bar that could change often or that you can get from them via their website. One tidbit of information that I list is whether or not the bar allows smoking. Actually, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania allows this now. You can find all the bars in Pa. that are exempt from the smoking ban on this website.

A lot of other websites put out similar information and typically do a review. They often list details about a bar such as hours, cover charge for bands, etc. But I can’t say that I have ever read a review or story about a bar allowing smoking or not. A recent story in a local paper was about perogis in many Pittsburgh bar. One was in particular was noted for this but reading the comments from readers caused me to think about the ban. The bar in question allows smoking but serves food. This is allowed. In order to be exempt from the smoking ban a bar must not have more that 20% of sales in food. That means they CAN serve food but would you want to take a date there? A lot of people will not go to a bar that allows smoking and they may wish to know this ahead of time. So, this is not one of my ordinary rants but just a comment for you writers that get paid for this. Please note the smoking allowance when you do your review. To my readers, am I blowing smoke or is this an issue? (Hey, you had to see that line coming)

I do know of some bars that do a great deal in food but permits smoking. I an others are not sure how they pull this off. If anyone knows the deal on this let me know.