My Future Business **86 Underground**

[Scheetz]

So the time has come and we are just a few months short before we plan to get our doors open in Southern Maryland. Working on our contract right now for our building which you will see pics of farther down. Our lounge is first and foremost a Band Venue. We have a full Carvin audio setup and more speaker/sub power than any sane person needs.

Our second part of the company seems like it will be a hookah lounge. So 4 of the 6 open days of the week (closed Monday) will be a full time lounge with half the lounge area still open during show times. I know I would love to be able to see my favorite bands live while smoking a hookah. So we figured combine the 2.

It looks like we are going to carry Layalina as our regular tobacco and Starbuzz as our premium. Both at very reasonable prices. We are going to use Mya washable hoses and 3kings quick lights. Thinking $10 for layalina and $12 for starbuzz. With unlimited coals, as I feel charging for these are stupid. We will use a medium bowl that will hold 35g so for $10 you should be able to get at least 2+ solid hours of smoking. I already go for 1.5 hours with 15g in my own bowl. Looking into offering juice in the vase also for people who wish to have this.

For now we are not going to offer any food, reason being our hours will be from 6:00 P.M. till 2:30ish or 3:00 A.M. Last call is at 1:40 A.M. , alcohol is put away by 2:00 A.M. We will introduce a full range of food a couple months after being open.

Drinks will cover non alcoholic and alcoholic drinks. Soda guns for Coke products, plus Sobe, Red Bull and a few other can drinks that we haven't fully configured yet. We will have a range of 15 beers of which some will have the option of on tap or bottle. 3-4 of these beers will change with the seasons. Will also carry juices, teas and coffee.

Once our build starts I will keep an updated blog on the forum. Plus I hope to see NOVA/DC/Maryland people come by.

Possible Logo, just something made up quick. We have a few other designs, just this one was easiest to post up.


Part of the Unit we are using. Its each unit shown. We will knock the walls down that separate them. Thus making it 1 large room.


Will set up outside smoking in the spring and summer months when the temperatures are nice.



The depth we are working with.


We have a few walls to knock down. But who says that cant be fun with a sledgehammer or at least a motorcycle helmet. We have more than enough ceiling height and plenty of accommodation space once these middle walls are removed.



And Mush: Good luck opening. I know exactly what you are going through I am looking forward to both of us opening up.

[DizzyGuy]

Congrats, dude! I wish that I was any closer, I'd totally come out and support ya!

[Scheetz]

thanks bro. Maybe I will buy you a plane ticket. LOL

Do you all feel the prices are adequate?? I have only been to 1 other lounge that offered Starbuzz along with other companies so I only have their prices to go by.

[DizzyGuy]

Well, I gotta ask... how many hoses are your hookahs and are you gonna limit the number of people per hookah?

[Scheetz]

Well, I gotta ask... how many hoses are your hookahs and are you gonna limit the number of people per hookah?

We are going to use traditional hookahs with 1 hose. We have a mutual friend in Lebanon who is shopping around for us. She knows what we are looking for and knows we only want high quality. The hose we will replace with Mya washables. She is also looking for 2 5ft+ hookahs for us to place somewhere beside or behind the bar. Either way they will be visible as a decorative item. However, like all hookahs we will smoke out of them.


Right now we are looking to limit 3 to a hookah. However, there are always those groups that come where only 1 person out of the 4 smokes so we will allow that to slide. However, show nights will have rules that 4-5 people must have 2 hookahs. 6 or more must order 3. This is only to enforce the fact that the tables still left in the area are for people who want to smoke while watching the bands. We dont want people just buying a beer and taking up the tables that hookah customers are wanting to use.

The main issue right now, is the area we are going to be in is uninformed of hookahs. The ones who smoke now have quite a drive to the closest lounge so we will be a welcomed middle point. Because of the lack of knowledge about it, we probably wont enforce the hookah rules until people try them and we have our feet firmly planted. Its rather hard to enforce 4 people to buy 2 hookahs when they have never tried one. However, like my first time, we ordered 3 just because of the array of flavors that were offered. Hopefully this will be the case.

[art_official]

i like the music/hookah idea

im yet to have a good sesh that was musicless

good luck!

[ghostofdavid]

Wow, to say thatI am jealous of you (and mush!) is an understatement. I'd much rather participate in something like that than push papers and fool with Power Center all day. Good luck and keep us updated on the progress (with pics).

What kind of music are you planning on having at the Eight-Six?

[web250]

Fantastic idea.

What type of music do you listen to and/or plan to have at the place?

[Scheetz]

For Music we plan to cover pretty much every popular genre of music going right now. Not so much Rap as there will be more metal, rock (and classic rock), punk, reggae and anything else that falls along those lines. We plan to do some karaoke/ open mic night/ and some other stuff. This is also the music that will be played during the lounge hours. We just haven't set whether each night is designated music genre or if it will just be a constant mix.

so sort of looking at this for a list.
Funk (good ol' James Brown)
Pop (just a bit, no Britney Spears or crap along her lines)
Country (still up in the air, I love country. May just toss a few songs into the mix)
Electronic
Ska and Reggae
Hip-hop/ Rap (just a bit, we aren't catering towards this)
Punk
Metal
Rock (old school and new) This is what will be played the most.

For the most part it will probably be whatever your favorite radio station is playing in your area. In the DC area think of DC 101 and 94.7 the Arrow. But all in all we will have any type of music you want to listen to covered. Unless you want jazz or blues. Cant help you there.


Take a look at Web's sig. That sums of some of the music right there.

Wow, to say thatI am jealous of you (and mush!) is an understatement. I'd much rather participate in something like that than push papers and fool with Power Center all day. Good luck and keep us updated on the progress (with pics).
What kind of music are you planning on having at the Eight-Six?

Fantastic idea.

What type of music do you listen to and/or plan to have at the place?

[jtemes]

if i didnt live on the other side on the continent i'd be there every other night. i find it weird how few hookah bars, where i live anyways, dont serve beer. I'd love to sip a Guinness and smoke some Starbuzz Irish Cream while watchin live music.

[rattler]

Hey Scheetz is there any place to park a semi truck around there? I'm not truckin right now due to a injury, but will return to the road soon and it would be nice to add another hookah stop.

[Zerodynamic]

if i didnt live on the other side on the continent i'd be there every other night. i find it weird how few hookah bars, where i live anyways, dont serve beer. I'd love to sip a Guinness and smoke some Starbuzz Irish Cream while watchin live music.

+1... its funny how the bay has a lot of lounges, but none of them are as cool as the ones you and mushy plan on opening.

[fizzgig]

Good luck with this! Looks pretty cool!

[camelflage]

hey scheetz, where in SO MA are you located? im in fairfax, VA, so i would definitely be able to swing by and support your biz. Edited January 1, 2007 by camelflage

[Scheetz]

Hey Scheetz is there any place to park a semi truck around there? I'm not truckin right now due to a injury, but will return to the road soon and it would be nice to add another hookah stop.

Actually yes, our building is connected to a Food Lion so the loading area is right behind us.
This is the only picture I have right now of the back side that shows the loading area. It wraps all the way around the Food Lion. Its large enough to drive a Semi with a trailer in circles without any issues.

if i didnt live on the other side on the continent i'd be there every other night. i find it weird how few hookah bars, where i live anyways, dont serve beer. I'd love to sip a Guinness and smoke some Starbuzz Irish Cream while watchin live music.

+1... its funny how the bay has a lot of lounges, but none of them are as cool as the ones you and mushy plan on opening.

Thanks for the compliments. We plan exceed the expectations.

Good luck with this! Looks pretty cool!

Thanks

hey scheetz, where in SO MA are you located? im in fairfax, VA, so i would definitely be able to swing by and support your biz.

I used to live in Fairfax actually. Then I moved out to Prince William as traffic was getting horrendous. We are going to open in Calvert County MD. You would take 495 to get there. Once I have enough money I want to buy some land out there, skeet shoot every day before I head to work.

[Blue Lantern]

Does your city have any noise policies? if you have mini-performances there.. will it piss off the city or chambers of commerce? but really neat idea!

[Scheetz]

Does your city have any noise policies? if you have mini-performances there.. will it piss off the city or chambers of commerce? but really neat idea!

Got that covered. We are making sure we are covered completely on anything that could come up. Plus its in a business section. There are no houses anywhere close that could complain.

[Blue Lantern]

sweet. i really like your idea though... relaxing and listening to music. great combo! wish you the best of luck and if i wasnt on the west coast i would totally visit your establishment when it opens its doors to the public.

[Scheetz]

Thanks

[rattler]

Let us know when it opens so I can add it to things to do when I am traveling through someplace. The picture was very reasuring. I really hate it when people say that a place in semi truck accesable and you pull in thier lot to find out your screwed and have to back out onto the street.

[ASUSEAN1]

i like the idea. good luck

[azcoyote]

Hey man, congrats. I know you will love the Carvin sound system. I have a custom shop bass from them and their bp200 amp, no longer in production. They make awesome equipment! Best of luck!

[angemonkwj]

congrats and good luck!!! i hope it works out for ya. this is something i would love to do in my area because i dont have a hookah bar around me at all. the closest one is about 2.5-3 hours south in miami and i hate driving down there. also, are you gonna have your homemade tobac there. i remember in one of your threads you had said that you were succesfull in creating it?

[Scheetz]

congrats and good luck!!! i hope it works out for ya. this is something i would love to do in my area because i dont have a hookah bar around me at all. the closest one is about 2.5-3 hours south in miami and i hate driving down there. also, are you gonna have your homemade tobac there. i remember in one of your threads you had said that you were succesfull in creating it?

Good question. Not right now we wont. I may offer it once I get the recipe down to perfection. I am still testing different tobaccos.

[mountainsmoke]

hey scheetz wish you the best of luck for your business