The Ranger Online

Issue date: 10/5/07 Section: Features

Media Credit: Derik Villanueva Ibrahim Al-Shalchi heats coals used to burn flavored tobaccos served at the Shisha Cafe, 5500 Babcock Road.

Shisha Cafe was first opened in San Antonio by a Lebanese entrepreneur in spring of 2003. Designed after the ever-popular Hookah cafes in the Mediterranean, the concept of Shisha Cafe was relatively new to San Antonio.

In its early days of operation, Shisha Cafe only offered flavored tobacco for its Hookah and an assortment of teas, coffees, fruit smoothies and sodas. Patrons watched games on the big screen television while others chatted and smoked Hookahs.

This is a closer look at the establishment and its culture by students in a summer feature writing class.

Click on the pdf to see the centerpiece.

Hookah culture

Hookah bars were once known for expanding minds, surrounding oneself with luxury and integrating an extraordinary cultural element into everyday lives.
More

Hookah people

The place was packed with all kinds of people from Saudi National Guard officers to college and high school students.
More

Hookah movies

A gaggle of youth gathers to sounds of Middle Eastern techno beats, dine on hummus and baba ghanouj, drink guava smoothies and smoke shisha from hookahs that permeate the air with fruity fragrances.
If this were a scene in a movie, the camera's lens would capture billows of smoke dancing from table to table on a makeshift patio with patches of green grass resembling Texas family gatherings of barbecues and birthdays only with the exotic taste of the Middle East added for flavor.
If this were a scene in a movie, it also might be rated R.
More

Hookah flavors

While at the Shisha Cafe, you can indulge your taste buds by enjoying the sweet taste of the flavored tobacco stuffed inside of a carved green apple.
More

Hookah music

Along with the tastes of Middle Eastern food and flavored tobaccos, customers at the Shisha Cafe are able to treat their ears to the sounds of the Middle East.
More

Hookah smoking

Bright icicle lights, loud Middle Eastern music and people enjoying Mediterranean food along with smells of different flavored fruity tobaccos.
More

Hookah food

Outside of the Shisha Cafe, five girls sit at a circular table against the stone pillar that marks the corner of the building. The girls talk among themselves.
Jeanette Rivera, psychology junior at St. Mary's University, starts to eat as more people begin to roam the area and migrate to vacant tables, different scents of apple and kiwi fill the air and the music displayed in video form on big screen televisions get louder.
More

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools