The Collegian

Issue date: 10/8/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Michael Mayday The Palace Cafe has no ventilation system, making smoke linger longer.

The Palace Café is going non-smoking. The downtown restaurant, known among college stu-dents for its breakfast food and smoker-friendly environment, will prohibit smoking inside the restaurant as of Nov. 1, the restaurant's owner Larry Houck said.

Houck said the changes are not a result of Michigan smoking laws, but of complaints he received from customers about the smoky atmosphere of his restaurant.

"I've heard from many people that they don't come to this restaurant for the smoke," Houck said.

Leslie Meredith, the general manager of The Palace Café, said some people do not come into the restaurant because of the level of smoke that can accumulate inside the dining room, because the café does not have a ventilation system inside the building.

"We have many people come in here and as soon as they reach the front of the restaurant and reach the smoke they turn around and leave," Meredith said.

Houck said the change is also an attempt to attract more non-smoking customers and families to his restaurant.

"I'm very excited to see these new customers come to my store," Houck said.

Although Houck said he is looking forward to seeing his restaurant go non-smoking, many Hillsdale College students who used to smoke regularly at The Palace dislike the changes being made.

"I'm extremely put off by all of this," said Kari Snyder, a senior political economy major who lives above the café. "The Palace has wonderful food at cheap prices, and it's a great place to have a cup of coffee and smoke a cigarette."

Tim Routzahn, a senior business marketing major, disagreed with Houck that the new anti-smoking policy will benefit the restaurant.

"I think that the new policy will hurt the restaurant in the long run," Routzahn said, "since most of the business comes from smokers and the fact that a lot of people there for a place to smoke."

Meredith also expressed doubts about the idea of the restaurant going non-smoking.

"Some of us here at the restaurant are hoping that he doesn't go through with the non-smoking policy, but we believe he's going to go through with it," Meredith said.

Despite the rise of angry attitudes towards the new policy, Houck said that he is still concerned about alienating his regular customers and wants them to understand why he enacted the policy.

"I'm definitely worried about what could happen with the smokers," Houck said.

The restaurant is also currently renovating its facade with a grant it received from the city, which it will also use to renovate the rest of the restaurant.

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