Our Honolulu
Taking a break from cell phones

By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Staff Writer

Public restaurants in Our Honolulu are still pretty much in the Wild West stage of cell phone use. You can wear your cell phone at the bar and even in the dining room.

But private clubs and golf courses are coming closer to making you check them at the door.

The Outrigger Canoe Club in Waikiki has just extended its restriction on the bleating of cell phones from the Koa Lanai Dining Room to the informal Hau Terrace.

Patrons must put their cell phones on safety ... ahhhh, vibrate and go out on the beach or up in front to answer a call.

"The board decision was unanimous," said Hal Henderson, president of the Outrigger Canoe Club. "Some Asian clubs are really tough on cell phones. In some places, if your phone rings, you receive a strongly worded letter from the board. If you answer the ring, they'll confiscate your cell phone.

"A friend told me about a country club in Los Angeles. He was in the pro shop when his beeper went off. He reached for it.

" 'Don't do that,' " Henderson said of a clerk's warning to his friend. " 'If you use it, you're out of here.' "

Both the O'ahu and Wai'alae country clubs have the same rule: No cell phones on the golf course. "If your cell phone beeps while somebody is teeing off, you might get a golf club wrapped around your neck," explained an O'ahu Country Club representative.

Wai'alae Country Club makes exceptions for doctors, military and government officers, said Allan Lum, general manager.

For example, if Gov. Ben Cayetano wanted to settle the teacher's strike on his cell phone at Wai'alae, it would be OK. But the governor would have to get an exemption first.

Henderson takes the same attitude at the Outrigger Canoe Club. "What is it, all of a sudden, that makes us so important that we have to answer every call right away?" he asked.

"Two things about cell phones are annoying. When they ring, for one. Also, somebody talking loud about the stock market at the next table intrudes on quiet conversation."

However, only one of the restaurants I contacted has taken steps to curb cell phone use. That's the Hau Tree Lanai in Waikiki — and only at night, not at lunch.

"A lot of businessmen come here with cell phones at noon, but we have a different clientele at night," said Paul Inoue, the food and beverage manager. "We had a few complaints at dinner, so we put up a small sign asking patrons to answer cell phones in the lobby."

The Willows Restaurant in Mo'ili'ili reports no complaints at all about cell phone users. Roy's in Hawai'i Kai doesn't have a policy, manager Rainer Kumbroch said.

Lincoln Hino, receptionist at Sam Choy's in Kapahulu, said cell phones are not an issue there. "I guess it's become so much a part of our lives that nobody thinks about it."

The bartender at Roy's summed it up: "My cell phone rings, therefore I am."