Well, it’s been a long time coming, and perhaps the most hotly debated topic on this website for the past couple years, but as of today, September 11, 2008, most bars and restaurants in Pennsylvania are completely smoke free. So get out to your favorite formerly smoky watering hole and enjoy yourself this weekend! Woo Hoo!!!!

BAR INFO? Let’s do a little research here. If you can confirm/deny that the following places (or any others you’d like to add) are (or are not) smoke-free, please comment below: Flying Pig, Berwyn Tavern, Cooz’s Corner, Brothers, Flip & Bailey’s, Yeats Pub, Rusty Nail, Square Bar, Jake’s Bar, Jitters, etc. etc.

update: According to a comment over at The Brew Lounge, the Flying Pig was smoke free tonight.

You asked for it — you got it! The Big Easy Saloon in Paoli is now smoke-free, thanks in part (we think, at least) to the readers of this website. Nice work, everybody. ;o)

After a long wait, the bar next door to Teresa’s Cafe (aptly titled Teresa’s Next Door) should open in early June. And, despite not being billed as a “beer bar” or a Belgian bar (and after several disputes on this very website), TND will offer 24 beers on tap (half of which are Belgian) and 160 bottles.

(Teresa’s Cafe will remain BYOB, in case you were wondering.)

According to readers of MLD, TND will also be non-smoking.

(Great beer, no smoking, a place to wait for a table at Teresa’s? This place sounds better and better each time I hear about it!)

The Wild Onion in Rosemont, now under the same management as Kelly’s in Bryn Mawr, is now smoke-free upstairs until 11pm.

We’re happy to report that two bar/restaurants in the area have decided to prohibit smoking in all areas of the restaurant.

Iron Hill in West Chester (and every other Iron Hill) went smoke-free as of 11/30/06; with both it and Kooma (plus upstairs at Ryan’s before 10), it is now quite easy to have a great dining and bar drinks experience in West Chester without smelling like an ashtray.

Gypsy Saloon in Conshy is the first bar in that area to ban smoking — and it is about time. In our original review of the restaurant, we stated:

The biggest problem with The Gypsy Saloon is that the bar area allows smoking — yet offers inadequate seperation from the dining area. Several times during the meal, we had the displeasure of inhaling wisps of second-hand smoke along with our dinners. While smokers might relish the opportunity to smoke and enjoy a well-prepared meal, as a non-smoker I find it hard to justify visiting a (mildly) smoky venue when there are so many quality smoke-free restaurants in the area. They should consider only allowing smoking in the bar area after 10.

Gypsy prepares excellent cuisine — now it can be enjoyed with clean air as well!

Stephen Starr recently announced that the bar at Alma de Cuba in Philadelphia is going smoke free. If this works ok, he plans to ban smoking in all of his establishments. Kudos to Starr and co. — it’s about time a bar owner stepped up and took the smoke-free movement on their own shoulders instead of waiting for the bureaucracy to do it. (I should also point out that the bar at Mantra, a new place at 18th & Sansom, is also smoke-free.)

What does this have to do with the Main Line? Well, reading this story I couldn’t help but think that it is time for some ML establishments to adopt the same policy. (It should be noted that Glenmorgan does already have this, but personally I don’t spend a ton of time at hotel bars.) Here’s an idea — what about the new bar that is opening next to Teresa’s Cafe in Wayne? We already know that one of the reasons for this bar is to court people waiting for dinner next door, so why not allow them to wait in a clean air environment? I’m always hesitant to go to GAP while waiting for a Teresa’s table, mainly because I don’t feel like smelling terrible for the rest of the night. A smoke-free establishment would certainly offer a nice alternative, and it seems to me that Wayne is just the town to get this movement rolling.

I know Mike from Teresa’s occasionally reads this site, so if you agree, comment here and let the world know!