Martha Rial/Post-Gazette
	Gary Reinert Jr., owner of the new Hot Metal Grille on Carson Street, holds one of old photographs that will hang in the restaurant, which opens Tuesday.

There's an irony behind the upcoming opening of the Hot Metal Grille on the city's South Side.

Here, rising on a piece of land which used to be part of the old and, once upon a time, smoky J&L steel mill, is a new restaurant which will be smokeless from the start.

As it turns out, the Hot Metal Grille in the SouthSide Works development will be in good company. There's a growing list of restaurants, among them some of the city's most fashionable and expensive, which are now smokeless, putting Pittsburgh in the middle of a trend on the rise across the country.

All bars and restaurants in New York City, for instance, are now smoke-free, and Boston also has enacted a smoke-free restaurant and bar regulation. Florida voters passed a referendum that provides a smoke-free environment in all restaurants as of this month.

Restaurant owners say that under state law and depending upon the size of their restaurant, they have to provide a smoke-free section for their patrons who don't wish to eat near smokers.

But that's a different matter from restaurants that have elected to become completely smoke free in this region. There's a long list of them that you can find at either www.nosmokedining.org or Smoke Free Pittsburgh's site, www.smokefreecity.org.

Smoke-free restaurants are catching on here, so there is not a particularly big risk involved in opening one, owners say.

"Things have actually gone pretty well here for us in my town of Bellevue," said Sam DiBattista, owner of Vivo, an upscale Italian restaurant in the Ohio River town which opened as a smoke-free establishment.

His restaurant's success has apparently had an impact there.

"I can tell you that since we opened, everything that's opened since then has done so as nonsmoking places," DiBattista said.

"There's a local pizza shop that's been here for about 25 years, and he lost his lease and had to move," he added. "He found another spot in Bellevue that had more space, and he decided to make the whole place smoke-free. He claims his business has tripled. People are happier going there and there's more families there now than before."

On the other hand, he said, restaurants that still allow smoking also are quite successful.

"Take the Rusty Nail out here. [It's] always busy. The smoking patrons are very dedicated to going there because smoking is allowed there. They're always busy," DiBattista said.

But overall, DiBattista said, smoke-free restaurants are growing in number.

Before Hot Metal Grille owner Gary Reinert Jr. made his decision about the new restaurant, which will feature pastas, steak, poultry, pork, veal and other dishes, he did his homework.

"I really took the time to do a survey and analyze it. We talked to people. We asked people. I found there are not as many people smoking at restaurants and bars as ... in the past," he said. "Five years ago in a group of 10 people, you might have five or six who were smokers, and that would determine where they would go to eat.

"That has dropped to only two or three people today, and they are in the minority. They won't determine where people will go to dine," he added.

The issue for a lot of people is: "They don't want to go home with their hair and clothing smelling like smoke. And there's also all the big health reasons, too," Reinert said.

Another concern for Reinert in making his decision to go smoke-free was the cost and the adjustments that would have to be made if he allowed smokers to eat at his establishment.

"There definitely was expense involved in creating a separate area for people to smoke or not to smoke -- both design-wise and in terms of ventilation systems," he said. "It probably would have cost us between $10,000 and $20,000 just for the ventilation system that we would have needed. Then we had to look into the design effects. We decided we didn't want to take away from our aesthetics, either."

Business owners must be allowed to make the decision about which way to go, rather than be forced by a new law to forbid smoking in their restaurants, said Patrick Conway, chief executive officer of the Pennsylvania Restaurant Association.

"The owner must look at demographics for his or her restaurant, the customer base, the local competition and lots of other factors. We believe the business owner should have the right to decide for himself or herself.

"We're opposed to any government mandate that bans smoking and dictates to the owners and his or her customers where smoking will be allowed."

Conway said, "There has been tremendous growth in technology in clean-air systems for restaurants for those places that do allow smoking."

He added: "In some parts of our commonwealth, it makes sense to be a nonsmoking restaurant. In other places, it would put you out of business. A lot depends on the educational level in the area, whether it's urban or rural, along with other considerations. It all plays into it."