Eat’n Park Restaurants Announces System-wide Non-Smoking Policy 9/11/2007
James Broadhurst, Chairman and CEO, Eat'n Park Hospitality Group, Inc., announces today the family dining chain will become smoke-free, effective immediately. "Our goal is to be nothing less than the world's best family restaurant. To do that, we must be a leader in our industry," said Mr. Broadhurst. "When the county and state's actions to ban smoking in restaurants were delayed, we felt compelled to act. We are the state's leading family restaurant chain, each week serving more than 350,000 guests across southwestern Pennsylvania, which means we have a responsibility to protect the health of our team members and guests." The change to a smoke-free environment will occur immediately. The smoking sections in all of the chain's 68 locations in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, including the company's Park Classic Diner locations in Monroeville and Jeanette, will be cleaned over the next two weeks, with the goal being that it will be unnoticeable that these sections were once smoking areas. The chain's 13 Ohio locations are already smoke-free since a statewide smoking ban was enacted in December 2006. The announcement comes as the company is preparing to launch Smiley's Beach Party - a major new summer promotion targeted primarily at families and children. "Our summer promotions over the recent years have increasingly been aimed at inviting families into our restaurants. Knowing that we will have many more children in our restaurants during the month of June made this the absolute right time to make the move to smoke-free," said Jeff Broadhurst, President of Eat'n Park Restaurants. According to Mr. Broadhurst, the announcement further positions the brand as a leading company committed to the health of its guests. "We have made significant progress toward improving the dining experience for our guests, particularly because we were one of the first restaurant chains in the country to switch to trans-fat free cooking oils in 2005. And, we have been a pioneer, nationally, in the effort to buy fresh fruits and vegetables from local farmers through our FarmSource™ program."
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