Lounges cater
to hookahs and shisha tobacco smokers
By
Brendan Watson
08/18/2004
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When
Sleiman Bathani opened Al-Tarboush
Cafe, a Lebanese restaurant in the University
City loop, he didn't expect that the hookahs
he sold there would become a major part of
his business. Today, he can't keep the elaborate
hookahs, which cost from $20 to $170, in stock.
"Back
home in Lebanon, it was older men who smoked
hookahs," Bathani said through his daughter
Annie Bathani, who translated her father's
Arabic. "But now, it's like cigars. Women
and young people are beginning to smoke hookahs
as well, and they're suddenly popular."
While
Bathani's cafe just deals in hookah
sales, two local bars boast actual hookah
lounges. Both U in The Loop and Nik's
Wine Bar and Hookah Lounge in the DeBaliviere
Place neighborhood draw a hip crowd of twenty-
and thirtysomethings who come to smoke in
comfort.
At
U, the sister lounge to the Eastgate Avenue
restaurant 609, it costs $15 to smoke a hookah.
The bar also offers a hookah
package for four, including use of a private
lounge, drinks and appetizers, for $125.
At
Nik's, it costs $9 to smoke the hooka,
which lasts up to 45 minutes.
"Smoking
hookahs is a great communal activity, and it's very relaxing,"
said Vivek Mittal, 27, a doctoral student at Washington University
and a regular customer at Nik's, 307 Belt Avenue. "It's also
a great way to introduce your friends to a new experience."
Nik's
owner Kurt Newsome said the pipe's novelty,
especially its exotic appearance, is a large
part of the appeal. A clump of smoldering
charcoal ignites the molasses-soaked
tobacco, or shisha,
which sits on a metal base atop a 2-foot-tall
glass pipe. The smoker sucks the tobacco through
a reservoir of water and out the bottom of
the ornately decorated hookah by drawing on
a colorful hose.
Multiple
hoses can accommodate up to eight smokers. These exotic pipes are
a novelty in American hookah lounges. They originated in 17th century
Ottoman Turkey, and even their Western pop-culture roots reach back
generations.
"I
had to come here because I grew up on 'Alice
in Wonderland,' in which the caterpillar smokes
hookahs. I thought that was really cool,"
said John, 25, a regular customer at Nik's,
who gave only his first name.
Since
Lewis Carroll's 1865 classic, hookah smoking
has further permeated Western, and in particular,
American pop-culture. That's why Annie Bathani
theorizes that it is becoming more popular.
"More
American songs have Arabic beats in the background,
and artists are making music videos with belly
dancers, which are played over and over again
on TV," she said.
Sleiman
Bathani, however, offers a different theory. He says that, traditionally,
shisha, which he sells for about $6, wasn't flavored. Now, though,
it's manufactured in dozens of flavors that appeal to Americans'
palates.
At
609, co-owner Bernie Lee serves nine flavors of hookah tobacco.
"I
always thought tobacco was tobacco, but that's not the case,"
said Lee, whose favorite flavors are honey, mint and double apple.
Nik's even offers a cappuccino-flavored hookah
tobacco, which masks both the taste and aroma that many nonsmokers
dislike about cigarettes and cigars.
"Hookah
tobacco tastes really great, and it doesn't
hurt your lungs - at least it doesn't feel
like you're hurting your lungs," said
Pooja Mittal, 27, who is completing her residency
in family medicine at Washington University.
She occasionally smokes a hookah with her
husband, Vivek, though she frowns on his cigar
habit.
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