Smoking Bars

In Pennsylvania, a bar can be open on Sunday if they have a Sunday license issued by the LCB. To get one the bar has to have food and non-alcohol drink sales of 30% (was 40%). The state Department of Health says that if the bar wants an exemption to permit smoking, the food and non-alcohol drink sales cannot exceed 20%. They also have to show the State Health people their records. This tells me that smoking bars cannot be open on Sunday. Do I have it wrong? Anybody?

I see some bars open on Sunday with smoking permitted. I have to think that they are ignoring the law. And who can blame them? I was once told that some bars do this until they get caught. They just pay the fine and keep doing it/ So much for government protecting us.

The real law are the patrons. It is their choice to enter a smoking bar and the state seems limp in enforcement. A law with no teeth is no law. I am posting a new page on www.pubnetwork.com on Pa Drinking Law and getting my information together. As for smoking bars and the law, I am just trying to see thru the smoke.

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.