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FeedHookah Bars and Lounges on the Rise in the Hudson Valley: Aladdin Café and Hookah Lounge in New Paltz and Zorona Restaurant and Hookah Lounge in Poughkeepsie
Move over, coffeehouses — the hookah lounge is the newest place to kick back
A Middle Eastern tradition, hookah lounges offer a place to unwind
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So let’s consider the options for a little socialization after a typical workday. There’s the ubiquitous happy hour at your local pub or sports bar. For those seeking a little lift, coffeehouses are the ticket. No-frills folks may head to a booth in a diner.
Now, to that list, you can add a more exotic setting: a hookah lounge. A what? Don’t worry if you are not hip enough to know about the mighty hookah. At a hookah lounge, or café, patrons share a melange of fruit-flavored tobacco from a communal pipe — or hookah. A long-standing Middle Eastern tradition, these bars have been sprouting up in urban areas around the U.S. for the past decade, but only recently have several opened in the Valley.
“It’s a place where you can socialize and enjoy a warm or cold beverage,” says Ray Ahmed, who opened Aladdin Café and Hookah Lounge in New Paltz last year. “There’s comfortable seating on leather couches. It takes your mind off work. You unwind.” And it’s a relatively cheap way to spend a leisurely hour. Share a hookah with a couple of friends and the price per person is around $4 — less than a large caffè mocha.
“In the Middle East, it’s a custom. It’s natural,” says Brian Nesheiwat, one of the owners of Zorona Restaurant and Hookah Lounge in Poughkeepsie. (The Middle Eastern restaurant has been open for several years, but the hookah lounge was added just last year.) “Almost every single house has a hookah. Almost any restaurant you go to you can order a hookah. Or just hanging out with a bunch of your friends by the house, you’re smoking a hookah.” Nesheiwat’s father, Yousef, was raised in Jordan, and it had been his dream to share a bit of that culture by opening a hookah lounge in Zorona. He died several years ago, but the Nesheiwat family forged ahead with plans for the lounge. They ended up opening the hookah lounge in a separate location because the restaurant’s landlord — nearby Vassar College — objected to the smoke-focused addition.
In fact, college students make up a sizable percentage of the patrons at both Zorona and Aladdin. Customers are primarily ages 18 to 25, many of whom aren’t old enough to socialize in 21-and-older bars. “We get a lot of students when midterms or finals come up, and they bring their laptops and type their papers up,” the 25-year-old Nesheiwat says. But it’s not only for the young. “We get ages 18, all the way up to the 50s and 60s,” he says. “Last night, I had a group of women who were in their late 50s who came for a Saturday night to smoke and relax.” He also sees a group of lawyers come in around 7:30 every so often. “Sometimes they come in suit and tie, and sometimes they come in plain clothes to relax and get away from going to a diner or a regular restaurant. In our lounge, you get your corner and nobody really bothers you.”
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» Visit Zorona Hookah Lounge
» Visit Aladdin Café & Hookah Lounge
» Visit Downtown Hookah Lounge
» Visit all hookah lounges in the Hudson Valley
