State guide lists smoke-free eateries
Associated Press
WAILUKU, Maui — Nearly all of the restaurants on Lana'i are smoke-free, but none of Moloka'i's few restaurants are, according to a new guide published by the state and the Coalition for a Tobacco Free Hawaii.
The 2002 issue of "Hawaii's Guide to Smoke-Free Dining" lists 81 smoke-free restaurants on Kaua'i and 32 on Maui, which has probably three times as many eateries as the Garden Isle.
The guide also lists the voluntarily smoke-free Honolulu restaurants, but as of Monday, all O'ahu restaurants will be smoke-free, by a new city ordinance.
Although Casanova Italian Restaurant and Deli in Makawao is not listed in the guide, owner Steve Burgelin said the dining room is nonsmoking until 9:30 p.m.
Burgelin tried to offer a smoke-free nightclub night once a week several years ago, but it failed.
"I felt we were breaking ground," he says now, "but we had to admit defeat. It cost us a lot of money and a lot of business."
Troy Taylor, manager of one of Maui's handful of smoke-free restaurants, Kula Lodge & Restaurant, said sometimes it's ironic, because the dining room has an open fireplace that "puts out a lot of smoke."
But many of the customers come from the Mainland, where restaurant smoking bans are common, so when they find the same at Kula Lodge, "It's not a big shock."
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