Opening A Hookah Bar

[MonkeyBiz]

So me and a few friends are a little entreprenurial, and are interested
in opening a hookah bar here in beautiful Bloomington, Indiana. It's
become really popular here, and we think the business has a good chance
of success. Anyone have any suggestions on things to do and what we
should be looking for?

[NERV]

there is a very successful hookah bar near me, its actually a coffee
shop, they serve non-alcoholic drinks, shisha, and snacks. their drinks
include soda, coffees, juices, and a few other things, their snacks
seem to be mostly mediterranian cakes, and their shisha i is unfamiliar
to me, the double apple has the standard bit of licorice taste, but
their melon is neither nakhla or al waha.

it also depends on what your priorities are, if you want attract to
more experienced hookah smokers you will need to use natural coals and
high quality tobacco, there is another place near me that seems to
attract only to more ignorant, they use quick lites and and only al
waha, they also seemed quite busy, but i wouldnt go back.

i would also reccomend using only large single traditional hookahs on
the floor, this will reduce idiot mishaps, traditional pieces are
cheaper to repair, single hose are less likely to burn than multi hose,
kept on the floor for obvious safety reasons, traditional parts will be
the easiest to replace, and the larger they are the more impressive
their presence will be.

also, dont keep the music too loud, one place by me has a big screen tv
but no seperate speaker so they gotta blast em for everyone to hear, so
if you're unfortunate enough to be near the tv its ear splitting, so
get multiple speakers around the place so no one speaker has to be too
loud, definitely need some kind of music or show going so that any
particularly loud groups wont be too distracting for other customers

and if you want to give people something to occypy themselves during
the time they are smoking, you can keep some games, backgammon, chess,
cards, definitely something good to pass the time.

couches are good, but not a must as they can get expensive and are easy to stain or burn. hope this helps.

[MonkeyBiz]

My concept for the place is a very simple cafe, soft lighting, that
sorta think. I was thinking giving people the option of either regular
or premium flavors, but maintaining a consistent level of quality
throughout. I would probably stock a mixture of Egyptian, Syrian, and
Rotator hookahs. Also, I'd like to strike a deal to be able to sell
high quality hookahs and tobacco, which is severly lacking here. Let me
know what you think. 

[NERV]

selling hookahs and tobacco is definitely a good plan, i think people
would be more inclined to buy products from someone they consider to
have expertise, a hookah lounge/store, if you can keep decent prices,
might be one of the most successful ideas

[Jeff_T]

Monkey if you can get ahold of Roger from Smiley's in Tucson, talk to him. He's a great guy and opened up an amazing shop probably about 8 months ago which is booming now. THey have lots of different ma'assels to choose from. They have more standard up to premium, and they also sell hookahs. He posts on here a little under: Simley'sUltimate. I believe that his e-mail is: purplerog13@yahoo.comTheir site is [url="http://www.smileysultimate.com"]http://www.smileysultimate.com[/url]

[cypress]

Good luck MonkeyBiz. I hope you open up a good bar. The one I visited
this weekend sucked and the sad thing is people liked going there and
it was packed. 

[Ghaleon]

Keep us posted as well.  I'm down in Hanover Indiana (near madison) and would deffinitely  go to your bar.

[Mathazar]

www.Hookah-Hookah.com will in the near future be selling rotators with
the "Auto-Seal System". Perhaps you could strike a deal
with them on a number of these rotators.  Currently they have
Persian 4 Hose Stems with "Auto-Seal".

Give them a call at:  1-800-366-5387

And talk with Jonothan,  he's the guy I always request when I call
because he's so informed on future events down at Hookah-Hookah.

Also,  they sell 1 pound tubs of their tobacco.  I would
HIGHLY-RECCOMMEND you get your hands on some of their Margarita, 
Pineapple,  Melon,  and Grape.  The other flavors have
really gone down hill lately.  Within the month of February
they'll be coming-out with 10 new flavors.  And within the month
of April they'll have 10 MORE flavors.  They took my
reccommendation on one of the flavors coming-out in
April.........Butterscotch......They said that will make an AWESOME
flavor. 

www.Fumari.com sells an EXCELLENT Watermelon.....Maybe you could strike
some kind of deal with them to buy the Watermelon.  It's TRULY an
excellent flavor that I'm certain your customers would love. 
Hookah-Hookah is also coming-out with Watermelon in February.

Goodluck with your lounge.  I'm in Milwaukee,  if I ever make
it out that way,  I'll DEFINITELY stop in and visit.  Please
let us know what your web address will be when you've got it up 

[MonkeyBiz]

It may not be open for a while... All the resturants and bars in the
area have gone to strictly no smoking, so I'd probably have to apply
for special permits. Also, I think that by catering to the general
public and enthusiasts, it could work out quite nicely. I've got to
find a good place for it and figure out how best to run it in a college
town. Being a college student myself, I've got things like class and
such to worry about.

However, if and or when it opens up, I'll be sure to let everyone know.

[NERV]

location doesnt seem to be that important for a hookah lounge, most of
them dont even advertise, the ones near me, all the signs claim
resturants or coffee shops. word of mouth spreads pretty fast

[tuma al Zrai]

Naklah,definately Naklah. The thing about it is, it's cheap, but if you know what your doing you're customers would think it's the expensive stuff. The thing is, the people who run qahweh houses are [b]good, [/b]they use the traditional coals (they have little metal oven things that keep them glowing-the bricks that you have to break up yourself), they use windscreens outside and coal shields, it's easier than foil, and better for you. For pipes, I'd go with Syrian, but their a little bit more expensive. You can get good deals in bulk thoigh, and they have alot more features than the Egyptian (lebaneseproducts.com, buylebanese.com have a lot of Syro-Lebanese pipes, but no coals or mu'ussel).Most of the shops on the internet are terribly expensive, it would be best to buy them up front (but unless you have alot of sky miles, this isn't to likely), but hey, part of the mystique of the coffee houses is the argilehs themselves. They ussually have the big, tall ornate ones that catch your eye right away. There was someone else opening a lounge, there was a lot of good info in that forum, too. Any way, if your serving food, alot of bigger Arabic places have a "family room", where it's smoke-free (resteraunts) and a section for adults only where they bring out argilehs after the meal, but these are mostly a foreign concept to Americans. You can never go wrong with Mezza, maybe a few grills, and some desserts (THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS MEDTTERANEAN FOOD), it would make sence if your going with a theme to do Arabic. Wana Eneb (grape leaves-dolmades) Homous, Baba Ganouj, Tabbouleh, Fatoush, and Lebaneh with oil and mint are all popular examples of mezza. The most wide-spread meats are Shish Kabob (lamb, there are no cattle in mid-east and pork isn't allowed for Muslims or Jews),Shish Tawouk-chicken kabob marinated, Kafta/Kofte Kabob-ground lamb with shreded onion, parsely and spices), Shwarma-lots of differant pieces of chicken or lamb, spiced, tied around a spit, vertically roasted-genius idea. These are a little heavy, most places only serve mezza, fruit juices, coffee (Greek/Turkish coffee isn't filtered, it's very strong and you drink the grinds, Arabic coffee is somehow stronger, and mixed with cardamom and/or cinnoman, and again it isn't filtered), tea (sweet mint shai), stuff like that, no alcohal. Sorry if I went a little off subect, I'll get you some more stuff that relates soon.

[tuma al Zrai]

Topic: Opening a hookah lounge. Need input , Discussion Group For Hookah Lovers Everywhere-started by Kushlounge, I recomend you go over it, theres a lot of good stuff in there. And are you planning of a bar, reseraunt, or coffee-house kind of lounge? -heres one of my posts tyo the other lounge-opener
1. Most real Argileh (what "hookah" is supposed to be called) lounges serve either just double-apple or just a handfull of traditional flavors. This is a good stategy if your just starting out, they are like old standbys, if you get new artificial flavors, than theres no promoise everyone will like them. I recomend Nakla (Fahkfina is ok too, but more pricy)- Double Apple, strawberry, mint, peach, mixed fruit, apricot , and maybe some berry flavors to start out with.
2. [b]Never, Never (ever!) [/b]put the pipe on a table. It is against all etiquite rules and is extremely dangerous. (fire hazard!)
3. Alcohol is not [b]supposed [/b]to be served with argileh, but it often is anyway over here. In the base, however, I've never heard of. try experimenting with Arak-Lebanese ouzo. It has a Anise, fennel flavor that is complex and can pair well with some flavors, but not others.
4. traditional Argileh cafes ussually stock up on card, chess/checker sets, and Tawleh (backgammon) boards. If someone isn't eating a full meal with their smoke, it helps pass the time. (very traditional, but given up by a lot of newer places)
P.S.-I would recommend Mya Saray for their pipes. They are the only ones who actually advertise in Farsi and Arabic, so you know their customers buy good stuff. Even if they are expensive, there better than alot of other places.