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Hookah smokers like it sweet

A mellow smoking bar offers a pick-me-up near USF. Yes, they inhale. And it's legal, man. Critics question whether it's safe.

By STEPHANIE HAYES
Published May 6, 2005

TEMPLE TERRACE - Richard Preston's hookah pipe arrives at his table at the Meridian Hookah Lounge, and he takes a drag.

The pipe, a centuries-old worldly tradition, is now on the lips of a 20-year-old heavy-metal enthusiast. Dressed in black, Preston sucks lemon-lime flavored tobacco smoke from a twisting tube and leans back, awash in the perfumed haze. He is mellow but talkative.

"I worked my tail off today," says the Papa John's employee and University of Tampa student. "I come up here and it's like, "What's work?' "

He shares the sofa with Jennifer Goubeaud, a pretty blond in a short skirt and blue top. The 20-year-old University of South Florida psychology major smiles and sums up why college students are racing to try the hookah's sweet-tasting tobacco.

"It's something good and legal to smoke," she says.

The hookah, also known as the hubble-bubble or narghile, consists of a bowl connected to a vase of water with a long tube and mouthpiece. Shisha, a sticky, wet cocktail of tobacco, molasses and fruit, sits inside the bowl with a layer of foil and a hot coal on top. The smoke cools by passing through water.

American Indians smoked tobacco from pipes with stone bowls and wooden stems since before Christopher Columbus discovered the New World. Though the exact origin of the modern hookah isn't known, it has a cultural stronghold in the Middle East. Now it has made its way to the United States.

Between 200 and 300 hookah bars have opened in the country in the past five years, according to Smokeshop Magazine. While California and New York lead the trend, hookah bars have found homes in rural states such as Iowa and Wisconsin.

The bars usually resemble nightclubs or hip restaurants. Some serve food and alcohol.

At Miami's Tantra, rated the top hookah bar on southsmoke.com, guests can nibble on foie gras and Moroccan spiced lamb, and add a hookah to the tab at 11 p.m. for $15 an hour.

At Stogies' Hookah Hut in Albany, Calif., smokers can try bubble gum shisha, shoot pool, play video games and watch sports on a big screen TV.

The USF area has grabbed a place on the ever-growing list of trendy hookah bars with the latest edition, Meridian.

Marc Karimi could be mistaken for a customer at Meridian. He has young skin, dark eyes and clean-cut hair. The 21-year-old nestles into a group of college students on a circular sofa and disappears like E.T. in the closet of stuffed animals.

Karimi, a USF graduate, owns Meridian. The lounge's red walls surround couches, round tables and a small stage where singer Colt Clark strums tunes on an acoustic guitar. The lighting is low, the vibe is clubby and the art is funky.

Late on a Wednesday night, Karimi watches his business crawl with customers, mostly college students. It's the last thing he imagined when he bought a hookah pipe for decoration, "just a thing to have in my house."

"One of my buddies came over and we just decided to actually smoke it," Karimi says. "We smoked it and we were like, "Wow, you get a little buzz from it.' "

The pipe became a hit at Karimi's Sigma Chi fraternity parties, and Karimi took notice. He read up on hookah bars and wrote a 120-page business plan as a thesis for an honors program. After graduating in 2004 with a finance degree, he shopped for locations around the college.

"I got rejected about 12 times," Karimi says. "I looked for tons of different places around here." Landlords were wary of having a hookah bar in their plazas, perceiving it as a "shady kind of place," he says.

Karimi, who works as a business analyst for an investment company during the day, finally found a home for Meridian at 11401 56th St. and opened the bar with personal money last August.

Customers are 18 and older and pay a $7 to $10 cover charge for unlimited smoking. Flavors range from standard strawberry, apple and mango to more creative concoctions like "purple gorilla" and "sweet love," dreamed up by customers and employees. The full menu is listed on the lounge Web site, usfhookah.com. Coffee and soft drinks are available, but alcohol and food are not. On different nights, entertainment includes a belly dancer, a masseuse, a DJ, live music and an open mike. They cater to a relaxed crowd slumped on sofas laughing, talking, even canoodling.

"This is my answer to people, to USF students, just saying, "Listen, just slow down a little bit,' " Karimi says. "Come here and just chill out. Stop and smell the roses."

What may smell like roses to hookah fans smells of concern to others.

"Because (the hookah) is shared in a very social setting, people tend to smoke frequently and for a longer duration," says Samira Asma, associate director for global tobacco programs at the National Centers for Disease Control.

Hookah smoking can cause mouth cancer, and because of swallowed juices, stomach and esophagus cancer, says Asma. Studies from the Middle East and India show that lung disease, low-birthweight newborns and high carbon dioxide blood levels are also prevalent.

Asma says that most young people are oblivious to the risks, based on a 2002 CDC focus group study.

"The majority of all those who had been surveyed perceived that shisha was not harmful," Asma says. "They did not know the health risks associated."

At Meridian, most customers downplay the risks.

"I'm not addicted to it at all like people describe being addicted to cigarettes," says Kayvan Kusha, an 18-year-old senior at Wharton High School, who inhales a mix of peach, coconut and banana flavors.

"I smoke a pack a day," says Preston, the UT student. "This doesn't even feel like a whole cigarette."

Karimi says he keeps his customers informed.

"I don't want my customers to think that it's absolutely not harmful," he says. "I take that view definitely very seriously."

But, he says, he'd like to see more research done in the United States. And he maintains that smoking a hookah is safer than smoking cigarettes or cigars, since the hookah is shared slowly over a long period of time. He also says that because the pipe isn't portable like a cigarette, "you can only do it so often."

The portability issue has not kept some customers, like Kusha, from coming back for more.

"I'm here just about every night of the week."

Before Karimi opened Meridian, he found inspiration in a distinctly different place.

Al-Aqsa Grocery & Meat Market is tucked in the Flamingo Center on 56th Street, just down the street from Meridian.

It's a departure from Meridian's plush, modish decor. Al-Aqsa sells Middle Eastern food, gifts, books and movies. Copies of the Koran, the sacred text of Islam, are for sale.

In Al-Aqsa's cafe, hookahs are available to smoke. The cafe's look is sparse and unimposing. Uncovered tables and chairs are stationed between a large TV and an ordering counter. A wide wallpaper border of a picket fence and flowers adds a splash of color to the room.

Al-Aqsa is where Karimi, who still visits the cafe to eat, realized that some USF students might like his vision for a hookah bar.

"I was going there intermittently," he says. "The more I was going there, the more I was seeing it was filling up with white students."

Abdul Hafiz Atiyeh, Al-Aqsa's president, says he hasn't seen a decline in business since Meridian opened. The mostly Muslim crowd he caters to still comes in to play games, use the wireless Internet connection, watch soccer or catch the news on Al Jazeera.

He even gets a fair share of students, although not those seeking a nightclub vibe.

"It's quiet," Atiyeh said of his traditional bar. "They like to sit, read and study."

While militant antismokers say, "Sheesh," others like the sound of "shisha."

"The purpose of a smoke is to have fun," Atiyeh says. "Something to pep you up."

[Last modified May 5, 2005, 01:31:12]