The Choosing Health!® Restaurant Initiative has been helping locally-owned restaurants make and promote healthy menu options. With the help of its partners – Michigan Healthier Tomorrow, AL!VE (and Hayes Green Beach Memorial Hospital) and the Ingham County Health Department – CAHA has worked with three restaurants to make healthy and delicious menu updates that meet the National Restaurant Association’s nutrition criteria. Stop by one of these local restaurants and give their healthy choices a try!


Fleetwood Diner
2211 S. Cedar Street, Lansing

Fleetwood Diner's Healthy Menu offers tasty options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, including an egg white omelet with veggies and cheese, a grilled chicken salad with pita bread, grilled veggie pita topped with feta cheese, a tempeh burger with homemade dressing, and a low-fat, low-calorie Caesar dressing.


The Gavel
112 Cochran Avenue, Charlotte

The Gavel now has an AL!VE-inspired menu that includes a Key West Chicken & Black Bean-Quinoa Salad, Michigan Cherry Grilled Chicken Salad, Grilled Fish, and Whole Wheat Pita Pizza. The Gavel made healthy menu changes by adding fruit and removing soda from all kid’s meals; replacing bread sticks and croutons with whole wheat pita versions; reducing cheese on entree salads; and adding a black bean and herb quinoa side dish; and adding a delicious house-made, low-fat, low-calorie Caesar dressing. Plus, if you sign up for a L!NK card (free) at AL!VE, you'll receive 10% off AL!VE-inspired menu items. “Customers are pleasantly surprised that we have a menu solely devoted to a healthy lifestyle,” said Nicole Weinert, co-owner of The Gavel. “The menu has been so well received, including the Kids section, that we plan to offer more choices that are not only healthy but are also delicious.”  
 

Orleans Fresh Fish & Bar-B-Que
3530 S. Waverly Road, Lansing

Orleans Fish & Bar-B-Que is known as a “you buy – we fry” restaurant, where customers pick out the chicken or fish of their choice, and then it is fried. But now customers have the option of having their food grilled. Owner Walid Elchaer was excited to become involved with the Restaurant Initiative from the very beginning, having recently bought a grill in order to offer healthier options. The “Leaner” Side of Orleans now offers grilled fish, whole wheat rolls and buns, full-flavored salads, and some fresh, new sides.