Cambridge Chief Public Health Officer HAROLD COX, second from left, toasts the city’s new smoking ban last night at Toad, a Porter Square nightclub.

Cheering on their leaders and drinking with friends, local anti-smoking advocates took to bars last night to celebrate the first day of Cambridge’s new smoking ban.

“This is a wonderful moment for us here in Cambridge,” said Cambridge Chief Public Health Officer Harold Cox, who addressed a packed crowd at Toad, a Porter Square nightclub. “We’ve been working on this in incremental steps since 1975...I know how hard this was.”

Although limited restrictions on smoking in city restaurants have existed since 1984, the blanket ban on smoking in all Cambridge restaurants and bars was only passed in June after nearly a year of heated debate.

Somerville also put a similar smoking ban into effect yesterday.

Cambridge and Somerville now join 90 other communities in the state that have banished smoking from their restaurants and bars.

The Toad event was sponsored by Clean Air Works, an umbrella group of local health boards and organizations that campaigned for the two cities’ smoking bans.

“I’m thrilled that the only smoking in Cambridge bars tonight is going to be on the TV as Pedro Martinez smokes it past home base,” said Cambridge City Councillor Brian Murphy, referring to last night’s Red Sox playoff game against the Oakland Athletics.

“This is a victory for public health and workers’ rights in Cambridge,” Murphy said. “We’ll look back on this in a few years and say, ‘Why did it take so long?’”

Murphy concluded his remarks by encouraging people to “eat, drink and be merry.”

His recommendation was not ignored. After the gathering at Toad, smoking ban supporters spread out to local bars to enjoy a smoke-free dining experience.

Not all Cantabrigians were as enthusiastic about the ban.

Four protesters stood outside Toad carrying signs that read “Resist the Smoking Ban” and “Tobacco Control is Out of Control.”

Stephen Helfer, the protest organizer, called the ban the product of an “elitist movement of petty despots.”

Helfer, who said he works at the Harvard Law School library, said he is the co-founder of Cambridge Citizens for Smokers’ Rights.

“I think it’s cancerous,” he said, referring to the ban.