Located on Puget Sound with panoramic views of the bay and the Olympic Mountains, Ray’s Boathouse features fresh Northwest seafood in its dining room and its more casual Café. Entrées include salmon, Dungeness crab, coconut prawns and Alaskan halibut, and range from $15 to 20 per person.
Ray’s Boathouse has been smoke free since New Year’s Day 2003, after a discussion between the owners, managers and servers about the health risks of working around second-hand smoke. Three months before the switch the restaurant displayed table talkers announcing the upcoming smoke-free policy, and reprinted its menus in January to feature the new policy at the bottom of each page. Management provided a new outdoor smoking area for employees as well as guests. The entire restaurant is now completely smoke free.
Since going smoke free, the number of complaints is “less than I could count on one hand,” says Joey Perlmutter, Café manager. Happy hour in the Café used to be a popular time for smokers, but since the policy change sales have only increased. In addition, the noisy ventilation machines were permanently disconnected, creating a quieter more relaxed atmosphere.
Perlmutter offers this advice to businesses thinking about making the switch to smoke free: “Try it! Be sure to give your guests plenty of advance notice and roll out the policy change during your off season.”
Join the many others who have successfully made the smoke free switch and become a member of the Seattle Smoke Free Coalition.
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