Hookah Kings Blog

Welcome to the official Hookah Kings blog. This blog is designed to give valuable information and up to the minute news concerning all things hookah!

I drove down a sketchy alley on a rainy Sunday night and had images of horror films flashing in my head. Walking into the Luxor Hookah Café, I was greeted by a woman sitting on a sofa with a laptop and hookah in front of her.

Her bubbly personality was contagious and I immediately felt at ease. My mood changed once I walked through the door, and a sense of calm washed over me.

The building was set up like a living room. Flat-screen televisions and Egyptian tapestries hung on the walls, while sofas, chairs and tables were placed throughout the room. Vending machines glowed with tasty treats and a pool table sat, waiting for someone to play. Dim lighting gave the environment a comfortable touch. I took a seat on a floral-patterned sofa with a black coffee table in front of it.

Our server introduced herself as Kelli Conkey, a sophomore Theater major at KU, and gave us a quick rundown of the flavors, prices and a little bit about the place while setting a menu in front of us.

Who knew flavored tobacco could be such a hard choice to make? Vanilla, mango, cherry, apple, watermelon, jasmine and other flavors adorned the page. Conkey also informed us that we could mix tobacco to make flavors like piña colada, Jolly Rancher and strawberry lemonade.

My guest and I chose mango and relaxed in the plush sofa for a comfortable evening. Conkey sat down with us as we inhaled the smooth flavor of mango smoke. She said the Luxor Hookah Café offers a specific kind of Egyptian tobacco with molasses so it mixes better and burns for a rich flavor. She also asserted that hookahs are not as dangerous as cigarettes or cigars because hookahs contain no tar and only .05 percent nicotine.

Conkey said people enjoy the hookah bar because it has a different atmosphere than a typical bar. “You can come and chill and you don’t have to be at a bar scene. This is a place to relax and have fun. And all types of people are welcome,” she said. “We have pool, games, a jukebox, awesome flat-screen televisions that you can watch movies on, or you can hook up your game console if you bring the attachments. We also have free Wi-Fi, so you can come do your homework. We really want to cater to our customers. That’s what it is all about.”

The Luxor Hookah Café will be having a grand opening, the date of which will soon be announced. It will host live bands – any interested bands can contact the Café via Facebook. Local artists can also contact the Café to display their artwork. “It is really a word-of-mouth place.

We want people to come and enjoy themselves. And it is not expensive,” Conkey said.

An hour-and-a-half later, we were still inhaling the sweet, rich flavor of mango. One hookah can last for an hour with two people, but time seems to pass quickly when you exhale your stresses with the smoke.

My friend, who was smoking from a hookah for the first time, said, “I really didn’t know what to expect. It is really calm and relaxing here.”

The Luxor Hookah Café is located on 168 Sanders Alley (behind China King) and opens at 6 p.m. daily. Monday through Wednesday the Café closes at midnight; Thursday through Sunday it closes at 2 a.m.

It will also be open all summer. Customers are required to be at least 18 years old to smoke a hookah and must have proof of identification with them. Customers 21 and older, with identification, can choose to bring their own beer.

I walked back out in the wind and rain, pulled my hood up, and knew I would be back again soon.

Your problems can melt away, great conversations can go on forever and you feel like a new person after you leave. The Luxor Hookah Café is definitely a place I recommend visiting.

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With dozens of area hookah lounges facing major transformation when the state’s smoking ban takes effect on May 1, business leaders are to meet with officials on March 30 to hash out details of the law.

The Arab American Chamber of Commerce organized the 5:30 p.m. meeting at the Ritz-Carlton in Dearborn with representatives from the state Departments of Community Health and Agriculture, the County Health Department, and city officials.

The ban, passed by the legislature in December, prohibits smoking in any area of business, including patios or rooftops, where customers can receive food or beverage service.

Cigar bars, tobacco specialty retail stores, and the gaming floors of casinos can be granted exemptions.

Hookah bars can qualify as tobacco specialty retail stores, but can only sell “packaged, non-potentially hazardous foods, bottled beverages, or both, in incidental amounts, such as less than five percent of gross sales,” according to state guidelines.

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Ask Sami Romman the health question and you get cheeseburgers.

‘If you eat cheeseburgers five times a week, that’s not good for you,’ said the co-owner of Austin’s Kasbah hookah lounge. ‘But you have a cheeseburger once a week, maybe that’s not so bad.’

He’s answering this question: Is smoking a hookah as bad for you as smoking cigarettes?

You don’t have to watch Dr. Oz to know that lighting and then breathing anything isn’t good for you. But the hookah smoke is so cool after it passes through the water, expansive and perfumed, sweet as a campfire marshmallow. And because it’s not acrid and hot, you might be tempted to inhale, passing it back through your mouth and nose like the condensed breath of fall’s first morning.

Back here in the less-prosaic world, I’ve cleaned enough hookahs to know this: The black, resinous particulate matter that builds up in those satin-girdled hookah hoses? Some of that’s getting into your mouth and in your lungs. When you’ve tried, let’s say, six places in six days for a story on hookah lounges, it makes for a fine flinty cough.

In those six days, I also learned that first, most people have no idea what a hookah is. That I can fix. (It’s what the caterpillar is smoking in ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ the one who sounds like Professor Snape.)

And second, the hookah can bring together cultures that are half a world apart physically, a whole world apart philosophically. See there. Hookahs and cheeseburgers. With nothing more than tobacco and saturated fat, we’ve built a bridge between the Middle East and America.

Just set that coffee down next to my Nobel Prize.

The cloud (and how it got there)

Simply put, a hookah is a water pipe. A hollow metal stem fits into a thick glass vase filled halfway with water. Atop that stem sits a ceramic bowl with holes in the bottom. Into that bowl goes shisha , which is shredded tobacco mixed with molasses or honey and a corner-shop’s inventory of fruits, spices and flavorings. Over the bowl goes a shroud of foil poked with an artful array of holes for ventilation. On top of that foil go a few pieces of checker-sized charcoal as hot as Elin Nordegren’s vengeance.

A hose with a tapered mouthpiece fits into the shiny stem. As the smoker draws breath through the hose, air is pulled down over the coals, through the shisha, down the stem, through the water, into the vase and back through the hose as a pillowy cloud of smoke that’s more like aspirated Fruity Pebbles. The rush, when there is one, is no more sinister than a second cup of coffee.

There will be bubbling. The same rapid-fire thurping your parents heard from your older brother’s room before things at home got real different. Except this is about tobacco and not that other plant. It’s a Middle Eastern cafe-society thing that predates Jeff Spicoli by a millennium.

But the stigma remains. At Yahala Hookah Lounge on Airport Boulevard, a rough-looking guy rattles in, looking to bum a cigarette. ‘I don’t smoke,’ one of the hookah-smokers says in full exhale. The rough guy does a double-take. ‘Yeah, just that marijuana (stuff),’ he grumbles on the way out.

The hookah lounges in this story don’t feel like stoner places. They’re mostly like any other student-magnet, with coffee and free Wi-Fi. Except for the bubbling, and except for the place with the sea monster. Let me explain.

At Redline Hookah on South First Street, there are big saltwater aquariums, and in one of them swims a sea monster, a cheetah-spotted thing that stares at me with dead white eyes for 10 minutes while I smoke. Stick with your theory about it being a moray eel, but in Redline’s dim, soporific light, it looks like a phantom, helped not at all by the DJ flashing topographic grids against a wall, pulsing them in time to music that sounds like a chorus of car horns.

The ceiling is hung with bedsheet tapestries that look like Persian rugs. Shiny black and red couches flank low, scuffed tables for the pipes. Some of the shisha flavors defy logic. What is ‘Afro Pie’? ‘Dead Nazi’? And there are beer bongs. But service is good, and the resident tech performs CPR on a flatlining pipe to stoke it. It’s a jangly rotating model with a plain flexible hose, a step down from the hoses with grips as big and ornate as scimitar handles at some places.

But how is it that you can smoke a hookah indoors in a city with a no-smoking ordinance that won’t even let you light up in a bar? The Austin ordinance makes an exception for tobacco retailers. Set up as a tobacco retailer, a hookah lounge can allow smoking indoors, as long as other sales are ‘incidental,’ a term the city has come to interpret as five percent of sales, said Robert Wright of the Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Department.

The percentage creates some of the Kasbah’s stickiest moments, Romman said. Nobody wants to be the guy who enforces the tacit ‘thank you for smoking’ policy, but 95 percent of the money has to come from tobacco, so if you show up at the Kasbah, plan on paying for a pipe.

The incidentals at most lounges amount to coffee, tea, soda, energy drinks and a handful of light snacks. Full-menu restaurants with hookah service have the same ordinance option as everybody else: Take it outside.

Smoke for the soul, food for the rest

Outside’s not a bad place to be at Phara’s Mediterranean Cuisine, cross-legged in a cushioned lounge, guitars crashing from the punk-rock pizza Parlor across the street. The staff is never far away, whether they’re bringing a glass for the beer you carried in (for a $3 charge) or adding coals to your pipe. Your house-blended shisha might be Layer Cake or Jazz LeMonte or a smooth apple-mint.

Lamb shish kebab ($17) is charred nicely outside, overcooked inside, with a hint of garlic and sweetness. Lemony baba ghanoush is $5 with big folds of warm pita. With the hookah, dinner is a $40-plus experience, a baggage fee for a trip to a world apart.

On Oltorf Street, the front door of Tarbouch still says ‘just be nice,’ a holdover from the restaurant’s days as the late Danny Young’s Texicalli Grill. Young likely would have approved of the kind Lebanese woman who takes our order for a fresh gyro wrap with a savory Greek salad ($6.99), some tender lamb shish kebabs ($11.99) and a vegetarian plate ($7.99) highlighted by grape leaves stuffed with a rich blend of tomato and rice.

She charges up our hookah ($10.99) as she brings it out to the deck, drawing on the handle to fire the coals and prime the mapled smoke, then gives us each a plastic mouthpiece to insert in the hose as we pass it back and forth.

Perched next to the all-day crush of Oltorf Street, the deck is a slice of South Austin nirvana in spring. In summer, I suspect it’s more like the Sun’s Anvil from ‘Lawrence of Arabia.’ Drawing from another South Austin well, we brought in beers from the Whip In: astringent Ranger and Ridgeway IPAs for the food, sweet Avery Imperial Stout for the hookah.

There’s not much to eat at Yahala Hookah Lounge on Airport Boulevard. It helps to have the Arpeggio Grill next door, where you can order a Mediterranean sampler plate and have it delivered right to one of Yahala’s couches, thrones with minarets of crushed pine-forest velvet. For $10.99, the Mesa Plate rounds up tangy baba ghanoush and hummus, crisp falafel plus beef, chicken, stuffed grape leaves and herbal green tabbouleh.

Yahala operator Walli Elshinawy’s Turkish coffee is a bonus attraction, a sweet and boiled blend of dark-roasted beans, cardamom and secrets he keeps to himself. Elshinawy was born in Cairo.

‘I used to go to hookah lounges in Egypt when I was a teenager,’ he said. I watch him load a bowl of custom-blended apple shisha for a pipe with a satiny hose criss-crossed with blue ribbon.

In conversation with Elshinawy, I hear the word ‘hospitality’ so often it sounds like a mantra, a belief system. It extends to a giant of a man who walks in with a six-ringer of Lone Star tallboys dangling from one beefy hand. Two of the rings are already empty. The giant is Craig Brown, visiting from Montana, and he’s taken to Lone Star beer with the zeal of a native. He smokes cigarettes, he said, but the hookah is something more congenial: ‘I couldn’t just sit and chain-smoke cigarettes for two hours, but I could do this for two hours.’

Nearby, Barrett Dietz smokes with two friends, including a young woman who would turn heads even if she weren’t in such a traditionally male environment. The fact is, I saw just as many women as men in the city’s lounges and restaurants with pipe service. ‘When I smoke hookah, I want to get out and socialize, but not go to a rave,’ Dietz said. ‘I like someplace mellow.’

On a flat-screen TV in the back, an Arab music channel plays serpentine, beat-driven pop videos. A blond GaGa-wannabe with a black eye feeds raw meat to her baby crocodile. Note to self: Check local listings.

Kasbah: The spark of destiny

Sami Romman owns the Kasbah at West 27th and Guadalupe streets with his brother, Ronnie. Sami is 33 but could pass for a University of Texas student, which he was when he and Ronnie started Hookah-Shishah.com in 1999. The two have built their Austin-based Web site into one of the better-stocked and more well-designed Internet hookah bazaars, with Romman-branded coals and shisha and dozens of pipes. Ones with skulls, ones with as many writhing coils as Medusa’s head, one as tall as a man for $595, a little bitty silver one that looks like camping gear.

The Rommans took over the fledgling Kasbah in 2009. In its previous lives, before the smoke that gives the place a permanent caramel aroma, the two-story Victorian had been somebody’s home and a succession of coffee shops, including Mojo’s Daily Grind. Sami Romman pointed to a sunny spot near the front window where he studied in the coffee-shop days, unaware that his future self would be running the joint.

His own pipe dreams began in his early 20s. He’s from Houston, but his family is Palestinian and Jordanian, and he’d come back from visits to the Middle East with hookah pipes as gifts. ‘Suddenly I found myself with more and more friends,’ he said. His apartment off Riverside Drive became a social hub, like the Kasbah is now.

The place attracts a 3-2 ratio of women to men, Sami Romman said, a stat he credits for bringing in at least some of the guys. ‘People think this is an old-school male tradition, but it’s more than that,’ he said.

The magic of ‘more’ materialized on one of those Austin-only South by Southwest nights, in a scene with the look and sound of an indie music doc from a former Soviet republic shot with a handheld camera.

Crammed into an upstairs room with old wooden floors, open windows and boilerplate neo-Moroccan décor, about 25 people laughed, drank coffee and smoked hookahs. In the center of this claustrophobic euphoria, a band of telegenic pop kids played violin, cello, electric bass, acoustic guitar and steel-brush snare drum. Part hand-clapping polyphonic jam, part public rehearsal, they were Boston’s Art Decade. On the balcony nearby, a Hollywood fringe player brayed into his phone, oblivious, rounding out the sonic landscape.

Culture shock and awe

How do we explain a market that supports even one hookah lounge? The hookah is an artifact of Middle Eastern culture, the pursuit of which isn’t exactly cultivated in the West these days.

Maybe it’s this simple: College students will try almost anything once, and there’s so many of them around here. They’re in control of their time, many for the first time in their lives, and they’re meeting humanity’s full rainbowed ark , many for the first time also. And it’s happening in the pressurized crucible of academia. From that perspective, a hookah seems pretty tame, an 18-and-up option for thrill-seekers who have History 315K the next morning.

At the Arab Cowboy on West 24th Street, the clientele is split evenly between the neophyte college kids and Middle Eastern men for whom the hookah is just another day at the cafe, says staffer Nathan Guy. Owner Anouar Bhiri is one of those men, a native of Tunisia who first smoked a hookah when he was 15, when only the men went to the cafes there. To play cards, to drink tea, to tell a few jokes.

Bhiri, who opened the lounge last summer with his wife, Kansas native Dawn Scheel , says he’s the ‘Arab’ part of the equation; she’s the ‘cowboy.’ And yet he’s the one wearing the boots. In a way, the lounge reflects their relationship. ‘It’s the combination of two cultures,’ Scheel said. ‘Our purpose here is to break down those barriers. We’re doing it in our own small way with this cafe.’

Before moving here to start the Arab Cowboy, the couple lived in Los Angeles for 10 years. ‘L.A. is packed full of hookah lounges,’ she said. ‘The reason we chose Austin is that perfect balance of big city and small town.’ They’ve turned the place into a warren of rooms with contemporary furniture, polished wood floors and walls striped like Le Mans pit-crew jackets from the 1970s.

The hookahs are beautiful here, as much art as function. A bell-shaped ice chamber rests just below the bowl of mine, making for an even cooler and thicker smoke. Taking Guy’s suggestion, I have it loaded up with an apricot-rose shisha blend ($16.99, $10 during happy hour). Blushing, full and floral, this is what Eden must have smelled like, though my version of Eden smells more like a deep, frothed cup of French-press coffee ($1.95). Either way, it’s a sensory table dance, a swirl of guilty pleasures.

Tobacco is a quicksand of guilt and pleasure. Bhiri said he’d smoked cigarettes since he was 14, a habit he’s managed to shake. Somehow, the hookah hasn’t jarred his dormant cigarette impulses awake.

msutter@statesman.com; 912-5902

The hookah places in this story

• Arab Cowboy (901 W. 24th St. 477-9456, www.arabcowboy.com ): Hookahs $16.99-$18.99, $10 from 3 to 7 p.m. daily. Coffee, tea, soft drinks and pastries. No BYOB allowed. Open 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily, until 3 a.m. Thursdays through Saturdays.

• The Kasbah (2714 Guadalupe St. 289-4752, www.kasbahhookahbar.com ): Hookahs $17. Coffee, tea and soft drinks. BYOB. Open 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily, until 3 a.m. Thursdays through Saturdays.

• Phara’s Mediterranean Cuisine (111 E. North Loop Blvd. 632-7067, www.pharas.com ): Hookahs $15-$20, half price from 6 to 7 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday. Full menu, with smoking in a covered lounge, gazebo, patio and courtyard outside. BYOB with $3 corkage fee. Open 6 p.m. to midnight Tuesdays through Sundays.

• Redline Hookah Lounge (2101 S. First St. 383-8567, www.redlinehookah.com ): Hookahs $14-$15. Soft drinks. BYOB. Open 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily, until 3 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

• Tarbouch (534 E. Oltorf St. 326-2001, www.tarbouchfood.com ): Hookahs $10.95. Full menu, with smoking on a patio and deck in front. BYOB. Open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, until 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

• Yahala Hookah Lounge (6617 Airport Blvd. 467-2233, www.austinhookahlounge.com ): Hookahs $9.99-$14.99. Coffee, tea, soft drinks. Arpeggio Grill next door delivers from a full Mediterranean menu. Open at 6 p.m. daily, until 1 a.m. Sundays through Wednesdays, 2 a.m. Thursdays and 3 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

More places to smoke hookahs

• Cedars Mediterranean Cafe (220 N. Edward Gary St., San Marcos. , www.cedarssanmarcos.com ): Lunch buffet and low hookah prices in San Marcos. Open 10 a.m. to midnight Sundays through Fridays.

• Jungle Juice (2423 S. Bell Blvd., Suite A, Cedar Park. 219-1963): Smoke and smoothies. Open 5 p.m. to midnight daily, until 2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

• Pipes Plus (2418 Guadalupe St. 479-7473, www.pipespluslounge.com ): The living room of your apartment in college, with a head shop upstairs. Open 11 a.m. to midnight daily.

• Stratosphere Lounge (235 N. LBJ Drive, San Marcos. 512-393-5001, www.myspace.com/stratospherelounge ): A Texas State University hangout from Rayda Sounny-Slitine and Michael Kelton, who managed the late Hook-Up Lounge in Austin. The pipes are from the Middle East. The furniture’s from IKEA. Open 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily, until 3 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

• Zakia’s Greek Cuisine (8701 W. Parmer Lane. 670-1000, www.zakiasgreekcuisine.com ): Mediterranean food, Middle Eastern aromas. Open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturdays.

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DURHAM — Now that the smoke has cleared, it seems Hookah Bliss in Chapel Hill is the only business in the area still actively defying the statewide smoking ban.

Adam Bliss, owner of the bar on West Franklin Street, said this week that they are still allowing smoking inside.

Hookahs, which are water pipes used for smoking tobacco, are the main line of business for Bliss. The bar was not included in the exemption granted to cigar bars under the smoking ban.

Bliss noted that if he were to stop selling alcohol, he would no longer be in violation of the ban. But he has no plans for doing that at this point. Orange County Health Department has notified Bliss that they will begin fining him $200 a day until he let’s them know the business is compliant.

“Every day, they are going to assume I’m breaking the law,” Bliss said. “Therefore, they’re going to fine me every day whether they check on me or not.”

The smoking ban was passed last summer and went into effect Jan. 2.

Since then, although complaints have been filed on some restaurants and bars, most are in compliance.

Gayle Harris, director of the Durham County Public Health Department, said they’ve only had to send out educational materials in response to the complaints and have not had to fine anyone in Durham.

Brailie’s Sports Bar in southern Durham was the first bar after the ban went into effect to receive a complaint. More recently, Jump Shot Billiards on Hillsborough Road and Steel Blue on South Miami Boulevard received complaints. One business, Whiskey in downtown, has become a cigar bar.

The Durham health department sends out educational materials on the first round of complaints and then sends two written notices before fining $200 a day.

“People apparently are compliant,” Harris said. “It’s been very quiet.”

Bliss said his business began receiving notices on the fines two weeks ago, although the actual bill for the fines haven’t arrived yet. Bliss said the health department should check his business every day to see if he is compliant and should not just assume that it’s still allowing smoking.

“If they’re going to ticket me, they should come over and confirm that I’m in violation every day,” he said.

Bliss has threatened to sue before, but has yet to file a lawsuit.

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SCRANTON – As the caterpillar from “Alice in Wonderland” lets out a big puff of smoke in poor Alice’s face, he asks her, “Who are you?” What many in the audience are wondering, however, is about the pipe he’s smoking. It’s a hookah, a water pipe used for smoking tobacco, popular in the Middle East.
Its popularity has increased in the United States over the past few years and may now be finding an audience in downtown Scranton in the Exhale Hookah Lounge & Kabob Grill.

Like the curious Alice, locals often walk by and peek inside the windows of the newly opened restaurant at 136 Wyoming Ave., unsure of what to expect from something that has not yet been done in this area. In a city famous for its many bars and pizza places, Scranton seems like an unlikely place for a Middle Eastern eatery. But this unique concept and hanging curiosity is exactly what manager Mohammad Tajak is counting on to bring in the business.

“There’s that initial, ‘Should I try it? Shouldn’t I try it?’ Once people are over that, they sit here for hours and hours,” Tajak said.

The ambiance certainly encourages that, with one side lined with regular tables and chairs and the other with a raised platform lined with curtains, pillows, and low tables. Adorning the walls are colorful paintings and traditional Eastern garments, the air has a light, fruity smell, and the sound of foreign music plays throughout the restaurant, engrossing customers in the Middle Eastern-influenced atmosphere.

Despite the initial draw of the hookah and the mystery that surrounds it, Tajak said that’s not the only reason to visit Exhale. The food is the real attraction.

“When you think about a hookah lounge, you think about a place where people just sit here and smoke. That’s not necessarily true,” he said.

“The hookah doesn’t really start until about 5 o’clock anyway, so the lunch crowd can come in and just enjoy the food…A lot of people come in and they’re kind of surprised by the quality of the food that we serve, the taste of it, and the variety,” he continued.

The menu offers something for everyone: chicken, beef, lamb, seafood, and vegetarian dishes that include chickpeas, eggplants, and beans. All the food – appetizers, sides, sandwiches and desserts – is authentic, as their chef lived in Afghanistan and trained in India.

Tajak is from Afghanistan, and his family moved to the U.S. in 1988. They moved to Northeastern Pennsylvania to be closer to their relatives already residing on the coast. The restaurant is owned by Mohammad’s brother, Shoaib Tajak, and the rest of the family pitches in at the business as well, he said.

The family says the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and many downtown businesses have requested copies of the menu. Everyone, from young children to doctors, lawyers, and businessmen, have stopped in to try the exotic dishes, and, of course, smoke the many varieties of flavored tobacco.

“As soon as you enter the Lounge, you’re immediately hit with a sense of culture that was lacking in downtown Scranton. I loved the traditional pillow-top seating they had to offer; comfortable is an understatement,” said Mike Galli, a restaurant patron. “The shisha menu consisted of about 60 flavors which made selection difficult. The service was outstanding and by no means overwhelming.

“I definitely intend to go back and try the full menu and would recommend it to anyone,” he continued.

“The atmosphere is very relaxing and makes for a good time to be with friends and enjoy a good smoke,” agreed customer George Zvirblis. “I’m glad this area finally has a hookah bar with a very friendly staff who warmly greet you and make you feel welcome.”

Word-of-mouth has been helping the restaurant grow during its first three weeks, and Tajak’s welcoming attitude has made customers want to return.

“I don’t want people to think that the hookah is just for young people or the food is geared toward the older crowd or any specific ethnicity. Anybody who wants to come in and try something different is welcome,” Tajak said.

The restaurant also offers catering services, party hosting, delivery, and free Wi-Fi, he added.

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Plans to open a hookah bar in San Bruno inspired city officials to discuss smoking laws, such as extending smoking bans within all city businesses, tonight.

Last month, parking permits needed to open a hookah bar at 591 San Mateo Ave. were approved. While California law does outlaw smoking inside most businesses, there are exceptions for places like a tobacco shop or a smokers’ lounge. Mayor Jim Ruane is not against the hookah bar, however he questioned being asked to support things like cancer awareness while allowing a business to offer smoking on premises for a profit. Tonight the City Council will consider barring smoking inside all new businesses while discussing further regulations approved in other California cities.

“It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to be supporting cancer awareness and encouraging smoking at the same time,” said Ruane.

San Bruno will hold a public hearing to discuss banning smoking within businesses that sell tobacco, but would not limit the sale of tobacco. Such a change should not impact the previously approved hookah bar, but would affect future businesses.

Plans in San Bruno call for a hookah lounge at 591 San Mateo Ave., which previously housed a computer repair store, to feature a small reception area and U-shaped sofas in the lounge area. When it opens, the business is proposed to open at 1 p.m. daily closing at midnight Sunday through Thursday and 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

There are a number of places within San Mateo County that offer hookah. Locations in Burlingame, Redwood City and Foster City differ, however, in that hookah is acceptable outside or on some type of patio at a restaurant.

Although no action is scheduled for further restrictions, the council will have a chance to discuss stricter regulations like those in Belmont.

In 2006, the Belmont City Council decided to pursue one of the nation’s strictest smoking ban and sparked international attention. The ordinance passed declared secondhand smoke a public nuisance and extended the city’s ban on smoking to include multi-unit and multi-story residences. The ban that later went into effect requires landlords to put no-smoking clauses into any new or renewed leases. In 2009, Belmont further restricted residents of low-income housing from smoking within their unit — even if it’s a single-family residence.

The council meets 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 13 at the Senior Citizens Center, 1555 Crystal Springs Road in San Bruno.

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With all the hype about possible new smoking rules on campus, I’ve decided to go rogue and start smoking as much as I possibly can. Nothing makes me feel more like a steam punk cowboy than huddling in the cold, sucking down burning vapors released by the smooth, chemically assisted tobacco inside each cigarette. Every corrosive, velvety drag feels like one more step towards the old west. Or hell. To many of you this will sound immature, foolhardy and rash, to which I would respond: That’s the point. Hurtling towards a cliff at breakneck speed gives you a pretty big adrenaline rush, so why not take the training wheels off for a while and really live. In fact, just smoking cigarettes in front of classroom buildings and outside the Retreat isn’t cutting it any more, so I’ve decided to go one step further and fully integrate smoke into every aspect of my life, starting with the part of my day that governs my schedule more than class, work or sleep. I am referring, of course, to the three or four or five meals I eat a day.

But where can I comfortably smoke and eat simultaneously? We all know that College regulations forbid smoking inside, and it’s way too scary to try and break those sorts of rules in the Town Houses, where Big Brother is watching you 24/7. So unless I want to eat all of my meals outside (which wouldn’t be too bad this time of year), I need to find somewhere else to get my fix.

As luck would have it, such a place exists. Thank god for the Middle East, because the hookah is one of the best inventions in the history of man. And thank god that this tradition has made its way to Poughkeepsie, because Haight Street’s Zorona Hookah Lounge is finally here to serve my very un-P.C. needs.

Freshpersons, sophomores and juniors will not be able to share in this collective reminiscence, but if the seniors reading this will recollect with me for a second, we can go back to fall 2006, when Vassar College was gripped by a political turmoil of an intensity that we have yet to witness since. During that fateful year, Zorona’s made its first attempt to open a hookah lounge on the same property that is now home to their amazing restaurant, prompting a skirmish with the Vassar administration over the commercial use of properties owned by the College. Needless to say, that particular business venture was never able to get off the ground.

Next came the requisite—if not totally futile—student protests. I can hazily remember more than one hookah-in on the library lawn. That really showed the man. Nothing says hard-core political movement like a bunch of stoned college students smoking hookah on the grass.

Three-and-a-half years later, however, small businesses finally won out. Don’t talk to me about Joe the plumber, and his fight against Wall Street. I am way more interested in the story of Moe the hookah/falafel man and his battle against a notoriously liberal college administration.*

Zorona’s won out by opening their hookah lounge on Haight Street, just outside the iron fist of the College. This means that the two facets of the business, the smoking part and the food part, aren’t completely integrated, but it’s close enough for me. Patrons of the hookah lounge can order food off the regular Zorona’s menu during restaurant hours and have it delivered free of charge. The hookah lounge opens at six every evening, so this means that you can have your grape leaves and babaganoush dinner and your after dinner smoke all on the same comfy couch.

Because comfortable it is, at least for your tuchus. The lounge is one long room peppered with enormous futons of plush black leather. While your butt will feel at home at once, your eyes may take a while to adjust to the piercing red light swimming from the light strips wrapped around the walls and the tinted bulbs overhead. It doesn’t help that the walls are almost completely bare. Most hookah lounges make a point to outfit their walls with tons of tapestries and rug-like material, which serves two purposes: Firstly, it is just pleasant to look at and makes you feel like you’re in a cushy Lebanese opium den rather than a New York business venture; secondly, it absorbs all the fragrant, flavored smoke that permeates the room all day and acts like some sort of perfume wall. Zorona’s walls accomplish neither of these tasks. One wall is taken up completely by massive floor-to-ceiling mirrors, which, when paired with the red light and black fold-out futons, make the room feel more like a strip club than a hookah bar. Another wall plays host to an enormous portrait of a mustached man, whose gaze follows you around the room no matter where you sit. Anyone who has eaten at Zorona’s and enjoyed the eclectic portraiture on the walls will be familiar with this sort of thing.

The weird thing about the place is, once you walk through the door, you could really be anywhere in the world, with nothing to remind you that this is still Poughkeepsie. I would call this a good thing if it made you feel somewhere exotic, but all I could think of was industrial Detroit or a Russian mafia front. The only people that really seem to feel at home are the guys that own and run the place, who set up shop in a corner all night and puff away, laughing loudly all the while.

All that being said, the service is absolutely amazing. I don’t kow if I’ve ever been greeted by a friendlier person, a bear of a man who triggered some crazy deja-vu that I couldn’t explain until we got to talking and he let loose that he was an Arlington EMS worker. This guy has taken me to the hospital in an ambulance on more than one occasion, and has seen me practically bleeding to death, black out drunk and in the throes of a violent stomach virus. With this sort of personal connection, how could I not take his advice when he recommended we try the orange creamsicle flavor combination. It seems like these guys spend a lot of time just sitting around combining sheesha flavors and thinking up names. But damn if it didn’t taste exactly like an orange creamsicle. I never thought I’d say that smoking reminded me of my childhood, but on Sunday night as I sat there on my stripper couch, I was inescapably brought back to vibrant memories of long summer days spent at the beach. Despite the oppressively painted walls surrounding me and the Southern rap coming from the speakers (another element that made this feel decidedly un-Middle Eastern), I was smiling from ear to ear as I pitifully attempted to blow smoke rings.

Whether your hookah hero is Gandalf or the caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland, if you’re a fan of smoking you should at least pay a visit to Zorona’s hookah lounge, if only to keep some sort of smoking culture alive. Don’t expect to get blown out of the water, but do expect to have a little fun, and maybe munch on some labneh or falafel while you do it. Who knows, maybe this is how cowboys in Syria get down.

*(Authors note: I have no idea if the guy who owns Zorona’s name is Moe. It’s actually probably a much better name. But regardless, he is a hero of mine.)

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A rare intact Mughal gilt-decorated glass hookah base from the first half of the 18th Century India created great excitement at Bonhams Islamic and Indian Sale at Bonhams yesterday when it sold for £234,000 against a pre-sale estimated £8,000 to £12,000. The sale made a final total of £1.6m.

The 19.5cm tall gilded green glass bowl has a globular body and short cylindrical neck with a rib. It is decorated with a frieze of poppy plants alternating with cypress trees reserved in gilt.

The known history of this hookah bowl starts with John Clough (1904-1947), a High Court Judge in Calcutta (there is a memorial to him in St Paul’s Cathedral, Calcutta), an avid collector of Indian furniture and works of art. It passed down through the family to the present owner who was delighted with the unexpectedly high price at Bonhams.

Bidri hookah bases of the first half of the 17th Century became the models for those made in jade, enamel, metal and glass in Mughal India. The influence was seen not only in shape, but also in decoration, which almost invariable incorporated floral of vegetal motifs. A common design was large flowering plants at intervals around the surface.

One of the earliest depictions of a glass hookah base appears in a painting of a shop in a bazaar that is thought to have been produced at Bikaner circa 1700.

Another item that outperformed its pre-sale estimate was an illuminated Qur’an copied by Shaykh Hamdullah (b. circa 1436-37, d. 1520), from Ottoman Turkey, probably Constantinople, late 15th Century. It made £110,000 against an estimate of £40,000 to £60,000. This Arabic manuscript of 372 paper pages with 13 lines to the page was written in elegant naskhi script in black ink, with vowel points in black and red, and gold roundels between verses.

Finally an exquisite Safavid woven silk and gilt-metal-thread panel from

17th Century Persia, expected to sell for £15,000 to £20,000 went on to make £49,400. A small scrap of silk textile, no bigger than a hand towel, decorated with a series of repeated silver parrots perched on leafy branches amidst orange peonies and blue carnations on gold coloured ground it was part of a collection of Safavid textiles which sold for £152,400.

European travellers who were resourceful enough to reach Isfahan created by Shah Abbas I in 1598 were astonished by the rich dress of the inhabitants. Conspicuous consumption was a social obligation demanded by the Shah. This was a shrewd move to develop expensive tastes in his subjects thus reviving Persia’s brilliant history in textile design, famous through the Eastern and Roman worlds. There was a constant round of court festivities with extravagant parties held in palace gardens affording opportunities to display magnificent clothes.

Head of Islamic and Indian Art at Bonhams, Kristina Sanne, comments: “It is a privilege to hold these sumptuous fabrics in one’s hands. They provided an endless palette for their wearers to create visions of loveliness that rival and exceed anything we see today in the fashion capitals of the world.”

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What is this new trend that is taking our country by storm? Can it be this decade’s version of “MySpace” or “Facebook?” Well if you haven’t noticed, over the last year, “Hookah Lounges” have been opening up in cities all across the United States.

To those who are not familiar on what a “Hookah Lounge” is. A “Hookah Lounge” is a place to socialize and relax while you smoke all different flavors of tobacco through a hookah (a glass bong filtered by water with a hose coming out of it that you would inhale the tobacco through).

How it works:

The hookahs are elegant and distinctive in design, resembling glass art and collectibles from the Middle Eastern culture. The hookahs vary in size (average about 2 to 3 feet), number of hoses (single to multiple smokers), colors and designs, and especially quality. They are designed like a vase with a hose coming out of the side, and a bowl (where you put tobacco) on top. The hookahs that are provided by the establishments are basic, single hose styles with, replaceable tips for multiple users. The bottom of the hookah base is filled with water, the bowl is loaded with charcoal that is lit, and once charcoal is burning the tobacco is added. Don’t worry the servers of the establishments do all the preparations for yo0u. Various flavors of tobacco are available, actually dozens, ranging from watermelon, pineapple, strawberry, grape, apple, kiwi, lime, and even pumpkin. Almost any fruit flavor or combination you can think of is available or they will be willing to mix a custom combination for you.
The flavors that are offered to you are usually listed on a menu that is supplied to you once you are seated. Prices per bowl (top of hookah) with charcoal and tobacco are about $10 and last about one hour, but will
vary from location to location. Some upscale Hookah Lounges will even design the bowl out of your favorite fruit (I once smoked hookah with the head being a small hollow pumpkin). So now that we are ready, its Hookah time. First you attach your tip to the end of the hose and then you inhale. You can hear the water bubbling inside the base where the tobacco smoke it is cooled and filtered, with each and every pull, as you get the taste of your choice of flavors. Now you remove your tip and it’s the next persons turn. Easy enough right? If your looking to purchase a hookah, the prices can range from around $30 and can get as high as several hundreds of dollars. The tobacco and charcoal range from about $3 to $15 depending on quality and amount of tobacco. I definitely wouldn’t recommend purchasing these items at the lounges; the prices are usually much higher than in the specialty stores.

The atmosphere:

The inside isn’t what you would expect from a location dedicated to smoking. Actually, through my experience, I have come to find it to be the complete opposite. I am a smoker and the whole idea of it all intrigued me, so I wanted to go and give it a try. So I set out and found one of the more popular spots in my neighborhood and set off for a night of smoking hookah. When I got there I can hear music playing in the background and when I opened the door I expected to be overcome by a huge cloud of smoke, but I wasn’t. I later found out that the ventilation systems in these establishments are supposed to circulate the air much more frequently than other ventilation systems, therefore the rooms aren’t full of smoke and stuffy. The insides are usually set up like a bar, some tables with stools and chairs, VIP sections with tables and couches, TV’s, and some form of music (MP3, DJ, Radio), and low lighting. There is usually a bar that serves non-alcoholic drinks, snacks, and at upscale locations Middle Eastern menu items such as, gyros, humus, kabobs, etc. Very few locations offer alcoholic drinks, but there are a lot of them that will allow you to bring your own with proper identification (all persons at table must be of legal drinking age and have proper id). The entertainment will vary by location, but I have seen places with live bands, DJ’s, karaoke night, belly dancers, and live sporting events on weekends. The weekdays mainly consist of a more quit and relaxed atmosphere. Some “Hookah Lounges” advertise in local newspapers, distribute flyers, and post ads in local entertainment magazines. You may want to pick one up, so it will make it easier for you to decide which location to go to and on what days. Either way, no matter what day of the week you choose, you will definitely get a unique experience, so it’s worth giving it a shot. Most locations are near colleges, downtown areas, and directed towards the college crowd, so if you don’t want to be around a bunch of 21 year olds, this scene is not for you.

My recommendation is to give it a shot, go once and see what it is like. If you don’t like it, what do you lose, you just won’t go again. At least you got the opportunity to participate and see what this new craze is
about.We all need to get out, unwind, and have a good time. One benefit is that the “Hookah Lounges” are an inexpensive way to spend the evening, especially in this economy.

One last thing to remember, even though the tobacco used in hookahs is completely different from the tobacco used in cigarettes and is much more natural, all types of smoking can lead to health risks. So regardless your choice, have a safe and enjoyable experience no matter what you do.

We All Just Need To Enjoy Life to the Fullest!

(Regardless what your cup of tea, or shall I say bowl

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# Smoking hookah can be a relaxing and exotic experience. Hookah originated in India in the 1500s and spread to the Middle East, where it is extremely popular. You fill the pipe with flavored tobacco, and the hookah filters and cools down the smoke by passing it through water. Hookah bars have grown in popularity in the United States and the city of Boston is no exception. There are several quality bars in the area. If you’re looking to visit one, keep in mind that they require patrons to be at least 18 years-old with a valid ID. Some may require you to be 21 or older.
Habibi’s Lounge
# Enter Habibi’s Lounge and be transported to the Middle East. With its exotic décor and flavorful tobaccos, you’ll be transported to another world as you sit on the soft couches that line the walls. The large tobacco selection includes flavors such as Irish cream, white peach, apple cinnamon, cantaloupe, kiwi, bubble gum, guava, golden grapes, honey, licorice, pomegranate and coconut. If you’re hungry, try one of the offered snacks such as hummus, baba ganouj, yogurt dip with mint and garlic, tabouli salad and stuffed grape leaves. When you’re thirsty, a variety of teas, mulberry juice, pomegranate juice, fruit nectar, rose drink and lemonade are available.

Habibi’s Lounge
1217A Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02134
617-955-2064
habibislounge.com
Nile Lounge
# The Nile Lounge offers a Spartan yet modern décor with couches on which to relax. Smokers have the option of adding another hose to their pipes for a small extra fee. Tobacco flavors include plum, double apple, melon, fruit cocktail, pineapple, mint, mango, cappuccino, lemon, rose and black grapes. For an extra cost, users can add ice, lemons or milk to the base for an enhanced smoking experience. Try the special blends such as “fruity pebbles,” rose and strawberry tobacco with milk and honey as the base.

Nile Lounge
70 Brighton Avenue
Allston, MA 02134
617-202-3011
nilelounge.com?
Stanza dei Sigari
# Stanza dei Sigari is located in a former speakeasy from the 1920s. In addition to hookah, the establishment also offers a cigar bar and liquor bar. Flavors of tobacco for hookah include cola, peach, strawberry, spearmint, watermelon, orange, mocha, vanilla, fruit punch, lemonade, grape, champagne and banana among many others. Besides water, additional options for the base include cola, orange juice, grapefruit juice, cranberry juice and milk. Several signature blends are offered such as the mimosa; a dual head bowl with orange- and champagne-flavored tobaccos with an ice base of orange juice.

Stanza dei Sigari
292 Hanover Street
Boston, MA 02113
617-227-0295
stanzadeisigari.com?

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