BY LINDSAY VANHULLE
lvanhulle@record-eagle.com
June 20, 2009 12:05 am TRAVERSE CITY -- Smoking isn't much of an issue at The Flying Bowl. Customers at the East Bay Township restaurant generally don't discuss the subject, and they never light up. That's the way co-owner Keith Bonner designed it. Cigarettes were banned from the start at the family restaurant, on Chartwell Drive off Hammond Road. "It's a small building, and it's not really set up to have the kind of ventilation you'd need," said Bonner, who serves soups, sandwiches and dessert. "We've had a couple people say they appreciate it." The Flying Bowl is one of 12 restaurants in Grand Traverse, Benzie and Leelanau counties listed as newly smoke-free in a notice this month by the Traverse Bay Area Tobacco Coalition. Besides Bonner's restaurant, others listed this month include Crescent Bakery in Frankfort, Pedaling Beans Coffeehouse in Lake Leelanau, Clancy's Kitchen and Rich's Family Diner in Interlochen, Creative Expressions in Grawn, Espresso Bay and Subway in Oleson's Plaza East and The Digital Cafe, The El Dorado Cafe, Fu Hua Chinese Take Out and Red Lobster in Traverse City. They are listed on the Web site for Michigan Citizens for SmokeFree Air, www.smokefreemichigan.org. This brings the three counties' total to 280 restaurants or bars, a net gain of 13 from February to May. "The businesses up here are beginning to really see that it's good for tourism," said Lisa Danto, the coalition's coordinator. "We have a lot of visitors who come from outside the area and even from states that are smoke-free already." The smoke-free businesses who made the list aren't necessarily new. At least one opened or made the switch as far back as 2003. But their decisions helped Traverse City and the region earn a reputation as one of the most smokeless places in Michigan, Danto said. Businesses listed a variety of reasons for choosing to ban the activity, such as hosting a family atmosphere, being located in a small building and food quality. Dan Berry, service manager at Red Lobster in Traverse City, said the decision to extinguish smoking in the dining room was based on business and not necessarily the local push to promote smoke-free establishments. The restaurant made the switch to ban smoking in late December. The change upset a small number of customers, Berry said, but most approve. "The smoking section was often empty and we would have a wait for our non-smoking section," he said. "It has been almost entirely positive. Even a lot of smokers don't like to sit in the smoking section." Ultimately, Danto wants to see legislation banning smoking in Michigan businesses. But not all business owners are convinced that's the right move. "I support it physically, because I don't enjoy a smoking environment," said Bonner, of The Flying Bowl. "But I also think that people should have some freedom of choice. I hate, many times, the government telling us what we can and can't do." Staff writer Sheri McWhirter contributed to this report.
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