'Friends' Hookah Bar And Cafe

[TheyCallMeDave]

[b][size="4"]Friends Hookah Bar and Cafe[/size]

Located in Florence, KY.
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[b]ATMOSPHERE: [/b]The lounge is very small, but I think it's better that way. Decent seating, middle-eastern style lounge sofas. Lighting is plain florescent, and usually around 8 pm they reduce lighting by half.

Music is Arabic Pop favorites of the owner on week days, Current pop and hip hop hits on weekends. When the cool white guy is in (Jared, I think?) It's usually Bob Marley.

Friends is a Cigar/Cigarette friendly facility.

[b]PIPES/ACCES./SHISHA: [/b]Hookahs are Havana Mya style, ranging from 24-28 inches. All single hoses, standard Mya hoses. foil for covers, no wind covers, and use standard modern bowls. Three kings quick light coals.

All shisha is havana. Most fruity flavors, although a majority of the time popular flavors such as peach, DA, and strawberry are constantly out of stock. What's worse, most of the time they carry a small piece of paper, which contains a list of all the flavors they DON'T have. They do however, have a wide variety of custom blends. "Friends", "Fruity Pebbles", "Victoria's Secret" and so on.

[b]FOOD/DRINK:[/b] It alld epends on what you get. "Homemade Meat Pockets", are, well, hot pockets. Lol. Literally. The hummice is delicious, and they have all Pepsi products in stock. Plenty more. Smoothies are top notch. They even have The Cheesecake Factory cheesecake! Mmmmm.

[b]BACKGROUND: [/b]Managers all previously lived somewhere in the Middle East. They know a very decent amount about shisha preparation, heat management, etc. The most recent hire as manager (white guy Jared) knows more, to be honest.

[b]SERVICE:[/b]They are very good about setting it up, and seem to take care in making sure it's clean/neat. They start up your hookah for you. When they bring it over, they ask for anything else you want, give you two extra coals and tongs for custom preferences. Little ceramic bowls are set on the front desk filled with coals to quickly get unlimited coals. DON'T EXPECT MUCH FROM THE WAITRESSES! They only hire female servers, and cleary have no lcue about hookah management, except from what they were taught in orientation. Nice girls though.

[b]PRICES: [/b]This is where I'm a little irritated. Unlike the warm, home-style vibe it's atmosphere and esperience provides, it's prices are alot colder. Outrageous food prices. One hookah session is 10.00, with a limit of 3 persons per hose. 8.00 refills. 12.00 for their custom mixes, 10.00 for refills.

[b]ROLE AS HOOKAH SHOP: [/b]Don't even bother. One mya hookah with a pack of coals and a jar of shisha cost me 100.00 even, my first hookah. Sighhh. One roll of coals cost 3.19 after tax, and one 250g jar of havana shisha is 23.72 after tax. They sell their used hookahs from service for 80.00, new for 100.00. They also have small pumpkin hookahs for 40.00. Bowls are 18.00.

[b]WARNINGS:[/b] Any and all complications with service/hookah/payment will result in them not giving a shit once your hookah is on the table. Except for Jared. He's pretty kickass. Also, Friends tends to be a bit of a cop-magnet, from all of the unerage problems they used to have. So prepare for possible random ID checks from the cops a few days of the month. God, that's irritating.


[b]OVERALL THOUGHTS/RATING:[/b] [b]7/10. [/b]The charming atmosphere and relaxing experience don't come close to trumping the price or the "We got the job done, stop complaining" service. A nice, small remote hookah cafe, everyone knows everyone. I wish the choice of their staple shisha was different. Havana isn't really my cup of tea. Food is good, if you have the money. NOT A HOOKAH SHOP, A CAFE. They are here to use the shisha, not sell it. Don't bother buying. Clean, a good feeling while your in there. Overall, I think they have a halfway decent bar. They definantly need to work on their actual hookah service, but It's definantly worth the money every now and then.

Depending on wether or not you walk out with a smile, also depends on what day you go on. They could use some work, but alot better run than some other cafes I have been to.

[TheyCallMeDave]

UPDATE:

Friends Cafe and Hookah Lounge has been shut down.