Feature: Bringing new flavor to Pittsburgh

photos by Michael Heater and Mark Rawlings layout by Jay Huerbin

On any other… photos by Michael Heater and Mark Rawlings layout by Jay Huerbin

On any other night, Pitt student Megan Shields and her friends, Heather Swaney and Anne Seiler, would enjoy their Foxhound white wine at home.

But to them, Thursday night didn’t feel like any other night. With wine in tow, they showed their IDs to owner and manager Remy Andrawes, picked a seat in a corner by the kitchen and relaxed in the Sphinx Cafe Egyptian Hookah Bar. They ordered the candy apple flavor with ice.

“We did it last week, too,” Seiler said as she and her friends waited for their hookah to arrive.

“It’s also so cheap, $12 split three ways,” she said. “It’s practically nothing.”

While the price might be low, the rising popularity of hookah bars and lounges isn’t anything to scoff at.

Students are finding out about places that specialize in hookah and are making them regular hang outs to relax not only because of the atmosphere, but also because hookah bars pander to an 18-and-over crowd in a predominantly bar-driven neighborhood.

According to sacrednarghile.com, hookah was at first a Middle Eastern affair, starting in the northwestern part of India a millennium ago. The trend eventually spread throughout the Persian kingdom, and 500 years later, upper-class Turkish intellectuals took up the habit, where the hookah became more elaborate in design.

However different they may be in design and size, hookahs consist of the same four basic parts. The clay bowl is where the tobacco, called shisha, is lightly packed in and lit by coals that sit on perforated foil just above it, burning the tobacco by indirect heat.

As the shisha burns, the smoke travels down the stem and into a vase-shaped glass container, where it spends time filtering through water and sometimes ice. Next, it makes its way to the stem again and up the hose, where it’s puffed upon by the patron. Hookah boasts no tar and 0.5 percent nicotine, making it safer than cigarettes – though, as Andrawes admits, all smoking is bad.

Of course, any medical professional would dissuade people from all forms of smoking. In 2005, The New York Times published a study by the World Health Organization saying that hookah is at least as dangerous as a pack of cigarettes. Hookah proponents were quick to pick the study apart, saying that the WHO made the study as if someone were continuously puffing the hookah and that the coals were much hotter than average, possibly causing direct burns to the shisha. The bottom line is that, no matter what the study’s outcome, smoking is clearly not the healthy choice.

The shisha itself looks like every kid’s nightmare vegetable dish, resembling anything from shredded tomatoes to spinach. It also feels sticky but has a sweet aroma. That’s because the shisha is soaked with honey and molasses, and the tobacco itself contains some fruit pulp. This provides for a longer burn – on average, customers may take almost 45 minutes on one shisha serving.

Stephanie Woods, manager of HKAN Hookah Bar and Grill on East Carson Street, said that it was the first to open a hookah-themed lounge in Pittsburgh back in 2003 before becoming a legitimate bar with a liquor license. It’s located at 2210 East Carson St. near the Birmingham Bridge, a hotspot for people looking for something to do or drink.

“It took a while to catch on,” Woods said. “But it’s nice for people under 21 to hang out.” Even with the recent liquor license, HKAN still allows 18-year-olds, but they have to sit away from the bar.

A month later, Andrawes opened the Sphinx Lounge farther down East Carson Street at 901. He understood the business risks involved, but with a little advertising and a mellow atmosphere, he saw repeat customers, especially from the Oakland college campuses.

When he saw the number of Oakland students coming to his lounge, his hotel management degree and education told him to do what any good businessman would do – take his business to the customers. His newer 401 Atwood St. location is only about 2 years old, but he says the students are enjoying it.

“I’ve been using hookah for 19 years,” Andrawes said as he enjoyed a mint variation while browsing Facebook at the back of his Atwood Street lounge. “It wasn’t that popular years ago in Pittsburgh, so I took a big risk of bringing something new to the city. Eventually, people started looking for us.

There was really nothing for people less than 21 years old to do except for one club on the Strip,” he added.

Hookah Bookah owners Alamir and Jackie Alsakka decided to open their coffee house in June 2007 on 2506 East Carson St. for the younger crowd as well. Alamir Alsakka modeled his business after trendy coffee houses in his home country, Syria. The disco ball picked out by Jackie Alsakka helps to entice people, just like her husband enticed her with the idea of a hookah coffee house.

“When we were dating, he used to always take me to Hookah lounges in California,” she said.

While the Sphinx Lounge may be BYOB and HKAN a full-fledged bar, Hookah Bookah doesn’t allow any alcohol on the premises. The owners are Muslim and are forbidden to drink alcoholic beverages, but they make up for it with coffee variations and a predominantly Middle Eastern menu. They also say hookah doesn’t serve any religious purposes. It’s strictly a social activity.

“Rarely one person will smoke by themselves,” Jackie Alsakka said as she brewed coffee. “We also offer cards and board games for people to play while they smoke.”

As does the Sphinx, which charges $2 for dominoes, Uno and chess.

The HKAN doesn’t offer games, but it does have a jukebox for people to select more contemporary music and, according to Woods, its menu offers food for people to share.

“We noticed that since hookahs are shared, people did the same with their food, so our menu has lots of dips and hummus dishes,” Woods said.

The other manager, Anna West, said that their bar business has halved since the drink tax.

“We got the liquor license to cater to the older crowd,” West said. “But the majority of our business is hookahs. We just wanted to appeal to people of all different backgrounds.”

The Sphinx charges $7 to $12, depending on hookah size, shisha quality and if you want ice in your water base. They also sell hookahs ranging from $40 to $150.

HKAN charges $12 and up to $18 for its hookahs. The bar’s most popular item, Caribbean Sunrise, is $20 and consists of mixed fruit-flavored shishas and juice in the base.

Hookah Bookah charges by how many heads are on the bowl, ranging from $9 for singles and $15 for triples.

“It’s so people can mix and match the flavors,” Alamir Alsakka said. “If you like one better, we can put more coals on it for you so it burns faster.”

The lounges keep bar hours. They open in the evening and stay open until midnight with extended hours over the weekends, so people walking along East Carson Street will have something to do while bar-hopping.

“We’ve seen people go hookah-hopping,” Jackie Alsakka said.

And when they come in, they’re in droves. Groups of three to six people sit at tables (or in the Sphinx’s case, on floor pillows) and pass the hookah hose to each other. Some don’t smoke but enjoy hanging out with friends while listening to Middle Eastern music.

Hookah lounges don’t force people to smoke. It’s all a matter of personal preference. If you’re a smoker and looking for something different to try, then why not? If you’re a non-smoker but still want to hang out with your smoker friends, then lounges can be a chill way to hang out and have a coffee or beer.

Ask Hookah Bookah’s Magie Otman, who is ironically a non-smoker.

“I always come here,” he said. “I get to see my friends, meet a lot of people and some nice girls.

“Sometimes the smoke bothers me, but you’ll forget your health with girls,” he said laughing.

Like Megan Shields and her friends at the Sphinx laugh and marvel at Seiler’s ability to blow smoke rings in rapid succession.

“She’s like a train,” Shields said, laughing and drinking wine.

“The wine makes us giggly,” she confessed as the hose was passed to her, where she tried unsuccessfully to blow rings of her own.