Please Help Me...

[The King]

another suggestion.... Heavenly Hookah?

[JustinTyme]

Oh man i'll be sure to be there on opening day! There are almost no hookah cafe's here, just upscale restaurants with hookah on the side.

I was wondering where exactly you were going to set up in ATL, it could help name your lounge. For instance if your in mid-town you can name it something like "The mid-town Smoke".......or if you are planning on being in Buckhead you could mess with that too. These are the two social hot-spots and I think using the location name somewhere will help to associate your lounge with the "have a good time" atmosphere that they have already created.

If not you would probably be best with these modernish sounding titles that the other guys are suggesting, hookah here is extremely popular with college kids, so you should play to the younger crowd. Some other suggestions: "Aura", "Zephyr", "Cafe Blissful", "Celestial Smoke"..........basically anything referring to soft, smooth, heavenly, or relaxing

Yeah, I was thinking of the Buckhead area. I hear it's frequented by college kids and has a wonderful night life. I just hope there is a lot of foot traffic there as I will be relying on curiosity seekers in the beginning to come inside and experience a hookah. I think for my grand opening, to capture everyone's attention I'm going to put a huge sign outside that reads "Half Priced Hookahs!!"

Hey Hannibal, what do they charge for hookahs out there? I know Divan restaurant is a popular restaurant that offers hookahs. Where are they located? In Buckhead?

Thanks.

[Hannibal]

Yeah, I was thinking of the Buckhead area. I hear it's frequented by college kids and has a wonderful night life. I just hope there is a lot of foot traffic there as I will be relying on curiosity seekers in the beginning to come inside and experience a hookah. I think for my grand opening, to capture everyone's attention I'm going to put a huge sign outside that reads "Half Priced Hookahs!!"

Hey Hannibal, what do they charge for hookahs out there? I know Divan restaurant is a popular restaurant that offers hookahs. Where are they located? In Buckhead?

Thanks.

I've never been to Divan, but here are the prices http://www.divanatlanta.com/hook.html . I've only been to one place in the Atlanta area that had hookah, Darvish (which is a persian restaraunt that had similar hookah prices as divan), which is actually located in Roswell. I know of another place that serves hookah, but that is also a little north of buckhead along GA 400, I forget the name, but its located in Alpharetta.
So basically Divan is the only place that has hookahs in the Buckhead/Mid-town/Downtown area.
Buckhead as ok foot traffic.....most people that go there for nightlife already know which club, restaraunt, or music venue they want to go to and so they just park close and walk to it and don't really stray away. The only place I really walked around was near The Roxy and by Lenox Square Mall.

I'd say if you want a place where lots of people walk by then I suggest getting a tad bit closer to GT. Mid-town and Atlantic Station would be the prime place to set up shop. I mean competing so close to Divan may be hard, they are well established. But if you go 5 minutes south and into ATL then you can get those college kids in walking distance of your shop.

Having said all this I really wish you would actually set up shop in downtown Athens. Its a bit northeast of Atlanta, but its literally adjacent to The University of Georgia. Downtown Athens has a hell of a lot of bars..........I mean alot. It has an absolutely incredible nightlife with thousands upon thousands of college students paying to have a good time. Its worth checking out, I promise you.

[JustinTyme]

Yeah, I was thinking of the Buckhead area. I hear it's frequented by college kids and has a wonderful night life. I just hope there is a lot of foot traffic there as I will be relying on curiosity seekers in the beginning to come inside and experience a hookah. I think for my grand opening, to capture everyone's attention I'm going to put a huge sign outside that reads "Half Priced Hookahs!!"

Hey Hannibal, what do they charge for hookahs out there? I know Divan restaurant is a popular restaurant that offers hookahs. Where are they located? In Buckhead?

Thanks.

I've never been to Divan, but here are the prices http://www.divanatlanta.com/hook.html . I've only been to one place in the Atlanta area that had hookah, Darvish (which is a persian restaraunt that had similar hookah prices as divan), which is actually located in Roswell. I know of another place that serves hookah, but that is also a little north of buckhead along GA 400, I forget the name, but its located in Alpharetta.
So basically Divan is the only place that has hookahs in the Buckhead/Mid-town/Downtown area.
Buckhead as ok foot traffic.....most people that go there for nightlife already know which club, restaraunt, or music venue they want to go to and so they just park close and walk to it and don't really stray away. The only place I really walked around was near The Roxy and by Lenox Square Mall.

I'd say if you want a place where lots of people walk by then I suggest getting a tad bit closer to GT. Mid-town and Atlantic Station would be the prime place to set up shop. I mean competing so close to Divan may be hard, they are well established. But if you go 5 minutes south and into ATL then you can get those college kids in walking distance of your shop.

Having said all this I really wish you would actually set up shop in downtown Athens. Its a bit northeast of Atlanta, but its literally adjacent to The University of Georgia. Downtown Athens has a hell of a lot of bars..........I mean alot. It has an absolutely incredible nightlife with thousands upon thousands of college students paying to have a good time. Its worth checking out, I promise you.

Thanks for the info.

I'll definately give Athens a close look also. I think a hookah cafe would cater good to drunk college kids looking to try something different. Especially when you add the belly dancers!

Thanks again... will keep you posted.

[tingjunkie]

Is there going to be a particular theme or decor in your lounge? I think your name should obviosly match the way you decide to decorate.

If you are going with Middle Eastern furniture and decor, then the name should match. (i.e. The Caravan, The Palace, The Oasis, The Mirage, The Sultan's Den, etc, etc.)

If you are going with a groovy hipster vibe, then you can't go wrong with an Alice In Wonderland reference. I like The Rabbit Hole, or perhaps just call it Wonderland. In Portland, Maine (my home town) we have a place called The Purple Catipillar.

Figure out the theme first, then the name after.

[Blue Midnight]

Yeah, I was thinking of the Buckhead area. I hear it's frequented by college kids and has a wonderful night life. I just hope there is a lot of foot traffic there as I will be relying on curiosity seekers in the beginning to come inside and experience a hookah. I think for my grand opening, to capture everyone's attention I'm going to put a huge sign outside that reads "Half Priced Hookahs!!"

Hey Hannibal, what do they charge for hookahs out there? I know Divan restaurant is a popular restaurant that offers hookahs. Where are they located? In Buckhead?

Thanks.

I've never been to Divan, but here are the prices http://www.divanatlanta.com/hook.html . I've only been to one place in the Atlanta area that had hookah, Darvish (which is a persian restaraunt that had similar hookah prices as divan), which is actually located in Roswell. I know of another place that serves hookah, but that is also a little north of buckhead along GA 400, I forget the name, but its located in Alpharetta.
So basically Divan is the only place that has hookahs in the Buckhead/Mid-town/Downtown area.
Buckhead as ok foot traffic.....most people that go there for nightlife already know which club, restaraunt, or music venue they want to go to and so they just park close and walk to it and don't really stray away. The only place I really walked around was near The Roxy and by Lenox Square Mall.

I'd say if you want a place where lots of people walk by then I suggest getting a tad bit closer to GT. Mid-town and Atlantic Station would be the prime place to set up shop. I mean competing so close to Divan may be hard, they are well established. But if you go 5 minutes south and into ATL then you can get those college kids in walking distance of your shop.

Having said all this I really wish you would actually set up shop in downtown Athens. Its a bit northeast of Atlanta, but its literally adjacent to The University of Georgia. Downtown Athens has a hell of a lot of bars..........I mean alot. It has an absolutely incredible nightlife with thousands upon thousands of college students paying to have a good time. Its worth checking out, I promise you.

I think Athens could be a problem. I visited there when I was trying to decide where to open my lounge. The first problem with Athens is that it has the strickest smoking laws in the state, I mean really strict. The second problem is that (at least when I was there) there was no real estate available. I mean, literally not one place! Out of 15 schools across the country I visited, this was the only place that had nothing to rent at all! So, my guess would be if something were to become available, it would be damn expensive.

All that being said, Athens would make a fan-freaking-tastic place to open a lounge.

[PersianPride]

Let me tell you names of local hookah places around me in the U.K:

Cafe Noirè
Tawooq's
Kaps
La Shish
Halalino's
Zoos
Habibi Cafe

Feel free to copy any of them if you wish, after July 1st all of them will be non-existent

I thought all they had to do was hand out membership cards and classify their cafe` as a private club. Man I have a few muslim mates in England and I really don't know what they would do on a saturday night if they couldn't have a smoke. Since they can't go drinking.

[PersianPride]

My suggestion would be the Bedouin lounge. Although if your place isn't going to have a middle-eastern feel to it its going to be a bit of an anti-climax and possibly false advertising

[Hannibal]

Yeah, I was thinking of the Buckhead area. I hear it's frequented by college kids and has a wonderful night life. I just hope there is a lot of foot traffic there as I will be relying on curiosity seekers in the beginning to come inside and experience a hookah. I think for my grand opening, to capture everyone's attention I'm going to put a huge sign outside that reads "Half Priced Hookahs!!"

Hey Hannibal, what do they charge for hookahs out there? I know Divan restaurant is a popular restaurant that offers hookahs. Where are they located? In Buckhead?

Thanks.

I've never been to Divan, but here are the prices http://www.divanatlanta.com/hook.html . I've only been to one place in the Atlanta area that had hookah, Darvish (which is a persian restaraunt that had similar hookah prices as divan), which is actually located in Roswell. I know of another place that serves hookah, but that is also a little north of buckhead along GA 400, I forget the name, but its located in Alpharetta.
So basically Divan is the only place that has hookahs in the Buckhead/Mid-town/Downtown area.
Buckhead as ok foot traffic.....most people that go there for nightlife already know which club, restaraunt, or music venue they want to go to and so they just park close and walk to it and don't really stray away. The only place I really walked around was near The Roxy and by Lenox Square Mall.

I'd say if you want a place where lots of people walk by then I suggest getting a tad bit closer to GT. Mid-town and Atlantic Station would be the prime place to set up shop. I mean competing so close to Divan may be hard, they are well established. But if you go 5 minutes south and into ATL then you can get those college kids in walking distance of your shop.

Having said all this I really wish you would actually set up shop in downtown Athens. Its a bit northeast of Atlanta, but its literally adjacent to The University of Georgia. Downtown Athens has a hell of a lot of bars..........I mean alot. It has an absolutely incredible nightlife with thousands upon thousands of college students paying to have a good time. Its worth checking out, I promise you.

I think Athens could be a problem. I visited there when I was trying to decide where to open my lounge. The first problem with Athens is that it has the strickest smoking laws in the state, I mean really strict. The second problem is that (at least when I was there) there was no real estate available. I mean, literally not one place! Out of 15 schools across the country I visited, this was the only place that had nothing to rent at all! So, my guess would be if something were to become available, it would be damn expensive.

All that being said, Athens would make a fan-freaking-tastic place to open a lounge.

Blue Midnight is right. Athens virtually has no available places to set up, I actually walked around looking for some yesterday . And seeing how its highly sought after it would most likely be very costly.

The reason I suggested Athens is (besides trying to satisfying my own desire to have a hookah lounge here) I assumed that if the OP was going to look into Buckhead as a place to set up, that it wouldn't be as much as a price difference for some real estate if he tried to set up here. Buckhead is also a place with high real estate. Its basically home to most of Atlanta's nightlife. Granted it would probably be easier to find a vacant space to set up, but I dont think the price would be any more than here in Athens.

Like Blue said, Athens would make a fan-freaking tastic place to open a lounge.

[Donkeema]

Let me tell you names of local hookah places around me in the U.K:

Cafe Noirè
Tawooq's
Kaps
La Shish
Halalino's
Zoos
Habibi Cafe

Feel free to copy any of them if you wish, after July 1st all of them will be non-existent

you've forgotten De Cafe Lounge (also known as Merchants) on Barking road, and Warehouse on Green Street


The rabbit hole for the win! Edited June 11, 2007 by Donkeema

[Sonthert]

I would open it in the Cleveland area...little going on there! You could call it Hookah Flats after the Flats district!

Um, yeah.

Rabbit Hole was ruined for me after watching some dumb cop show years ago where this one cop was saying he was taking this hot Asian (Oriental, at the time) in and she was hitting on him and she liked "Having a rabbit in both holes." and he figured she had died of AIDS already.

Yeah, um...

Go for a classic Greek motif, being near Athens, like the Parthenon or the Oracle.

[Scheetz]

Well if you go to Athens stick with the 'Dogs theme.

The 'Dogs smoke Shop kinda thing.




I am confused though. So you are just up and moving randomly to ATL to open a business?? I assume you have lived in that area before? Because that would be pretty damn random. Thats like me just saying well screw the east coast. I am moving my business to Oregon and I have never been there in my life.

[Blue Midnight]

Well if you go to Athens stick with the 'Dogs theme.

The 'Dogs smoke Shop kinda thing.




I am confused though. So you are just up and moving randomly to ATL to open a business?? I assume you have lived in that area before? Because that would be pretty damn random. Thats like me just saying well screw the east coast. I am moving my business to Oregon and I have never been there in my life.

Meh, wouldn't be unheard of. I moved from Arizona to open my lounge in Michigan, and I had never been there before.