BY REZA GANJAVI -- NOV 2007 

LETTER TO HILTL VEGETARIAN RESTAURANT ABOUT SMOKING

Mr. Rolf Hiltl – Owner, Hiltl Zurich (Established 1898)

Dear Mr. Hiltl:

Last night we came to your newly renovated restaurant. I have been your customer over the years and have enjoyed the vegetarian food and friendly service both at Hiltl and Tibits.

The new restaurant looks great. However, we could not stand it and left.

The buffet area was so smoky from cancer agents (cigarette smoke) that when you looked up to the lights there was a fog of smoke dancing in front of them. What a pity that Hiltl's being so sympathetic to the cause of drug pushers (Big Tobacco) whose propaganda has totally brainwashed the good simple Swiss mind to believe it is about freedom. No, it’s about bondage, misery, and pain. 95% of smokers who want to stop can’t. That is misery.

Hiltl's sympathy for smokers means you’re exposing your customers to that cloud of poisonous gas (this is a medical scientific fact – cigarette smoke contains hundreds if not thousands of different poisons and carcinogens).

When someone urinates in the swimming pool, the urine can’t be stopped from spreading around. Your non-smoking section is not effective. We attempted to sit in this illusory non-smoking section and our clothes and hair smelled like cigarette smoke after 5 minutes. We looked up and there was a cloud of smoke dancing in front of the light, in the non-smoking section.

The “restaurant” area had a 30 minute wait and our only option for waiting was in the smoky room. The buffet area was so smoky that despite finding a table, we decided to leave.

This is a vegetarian restaurant. J. Krishnamurti and many other great people, famous and not famous, ate there. Sympathy for smokers seems to be contradictory to the health reasons of being a vegetarian. 

Regards
Reza Ganjavi
<snipped phone, email>

Copy: Geri Mueller – member of Parliament for the Green Party; www.rezamusic.com

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