Mangia Italiano Is Going Non-Smoking on March 1

• please, hamish. we know you've caught everything already.

• If Assless Chaps takes you up on the dinner offer, please put down a towel or something. I don't wanna catch anything.

• If any place that has gone no smoking has any old air cleaning equipment that they are willing to sell or trade, please contact me. We need to address this problem at the Wedge ASAP. Johnny moynonet@gmail.com

• but hey, I think the Redheaded Strangers are playing the last smoking show there, so I'm going to buy a carton, and go fucking nuts.

• Smoker here. Mangia was too smoky. I think this is a great thing for the restaurant and the bar.

• WOW! It`s really great to see so much interest, concern and in some cases disdain about our recent decision to go smoke free. First off to the smokers, sorry. We have been seen as the smokiest place in town for too long. Smokers even complain about the smoke! WE are in no way "turning our back" on you and we truly appreciate all of your patronage over the years. We are working to get an enclosed patio to better serve you by the summer. This was NOT an easy decision. We put out a survey and out of more than 500 responses over %78 voted for us to be non-smoking. This was both diners and drinkers. A good portion of smokers want to see us go non-smoking! And a big part of the issue is that smokers still have a choice to smoke and go to Mangia , we haven't taken that away. But now non-smokers also have a choice to not be in a smokey environment and still come to Mangia. The best comment we received in the survey was "a smoking section in a restaurant is like a peeing section in a pool" and we tend to agree. And for assless chaps: hey, I am sorry you do not like my food, we work very hard to create what I believe to be a truly excellent product and take our business very seriously. If you have not been in a while I would encourage you to come back. We have a top-notch new chef and strive to serve only the best quality food to our customers. Everything we do is from scratch and made in-house, I would like nothing more than to buy you dinner.

• Their food is HORRIBLE! Its been disgusting since the place opened years ago. It would be in the best interest of the business owners, investors and employees if they STOPPED SERVING FOOD and stuck with slinging drinks. All those fake ass indi, wanna be punks and phaux-rockers wont have a place to go no mo! me so sad :(

• I hadn't been in Mangia for years, exactly because it was such a smoke-filled mess. I'll be sure to tell them exactly why I've come back the first time I go there to eat.

• To lighten the mood a bit: "No one wants to dance; they're all outside--smoking cigarettes!" --Of Montreal

• @anonymous: oh, i'm guessing you're referring to our best of item about "best trend" of 2009, bars going non-smoking. that's an entirely separate section of the paper with an entirely different purpose than, say, the news stories we're doing or blogposts like this. feel free to send me others. again -- whether you like it or not, it's a hot-button issue in town. tons of other cities have enacted smoking bans already, years before this. the fact that it's potentially happening in st. louis is big news. so we're reporting on it.

• @Anonymous: i've certainly been known to have a cigarette (or two) while drinking. i'm not anti-smoking. feel free to email me examples -- in the context of journalism -- of instances where we've expressed sentiments like that. annie.zaleski@riverfronttimes.com

• I wasn't specifically talking about the content of Keegan's piece. More the general attitude/comments that RFT writers have made over time about smoking in bars. It's always "Thankfully, this place is non-smoking so we don't have to reek of smoke when we get home!" and comments like that, in many articles. The tide has turned against smokers, so there's not much we can do.

• i don't think the pageant gives out info for shows that haven't been announced officially yet to the general public.

• OT: Annie, the RFT reported that the Dead Weather had booked a show at the Pageant on April 24. An out-of-town friend called the Pageant and the Pageant said they have no knowledge of this show. Can you help?

• @anonymous: i'm not sure how reporting a fact -- that a venue is going non-smoking -- reflects our bias toward a smoking ban. this issue is quite controversial in town, and mangia has been known for a long time as being a very smoky place. the fact that it's going non-smoking is a big deal -- for patrons of the restaurant and bar-goers. keegan's piece actually devotes quite a bunch of space to things that aren't going non-smoking. if any bars/venues have decided NOT to ban non-smoking and want to email me, i'll report on that too. consider that an open invite.

• Everyone has a right to their opinion, but I'm a little tired of the bias the RFT has in favor of smoking bans. I mean, I get it, a lot of people don't like smoking, whatever. But it's not the only point of view out there.

• When I told my girlfriend last night, she said "oh good, maybe we can go there again". We've made plans to stop in after 3-1.

• The average life expectancy for S. City hipsters just increased by atleast 7 years

• Nice to see Mangia turn its back on the people who spend the most money there.

• FIGHT! FIGHT! (cough) FIGHT!

• And some of us will be patronizing it less.

• Nice... now they will just need to re-paint and re-furnish, because that place had so much smoke, I have no doubt the smell infiltrated anything and everything that can absorb smell. Nontheless, I will be patronizing Mangia more now.

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