The Ranger Online

Issue date: 10/5/07 Section: Features

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

Today, hookah bars, located in strip malls on the edges of the city, are known as the place to go to smoke one's favorite flavored tobacco.

But spending an evening hanging out at a hookah bar is much more than just smoking flavored tobacco.

"People don't just come here to smoke shisha. This is a place to hang out, relax with friends and experience something different," Rashid Hijazi, owner of Shisha Cafe, said.

As the sun goes down, more and more people flock to lighted patios and sit around tables at their local hookah bar to relax, socialize, eat and smoke flavored tobacco.

Patrons spend the evening smoking shisha through ornate glass water pipes with multicolored hoses.

Fruity tobacco smoke, which can last for two or more hours, fills the air as newcomers try to decide which flavor they want to try.

"We don't have a hookah bar where I'm from, and it's a great place to come and play guitar and hang out with my friends," Brian DeVries, a Texas Tech college student, said.

The hypnotic trance of Middle Eastern music plays in the background on large screen televisions showing MTV-like videos with musicians singing in Arabic.

"This cafe is a great example of a cultural exchange. You get to see a little piece of another society," Hijazi said. "This is a very peaceful, social occasion, generally filled with friendly conversation."

With bars and clubs getting noisier and more crowded, hookah bars are becoming the latest trend for the college crowd.

The alcohol-free atmosphere attracts people who don't drink or patrons 18-21 who can't frequent bars.

Most cafes stay open well after the bars close at 2 a.m., so the bar crowd can unwind after a night on the town.

The term "bar" in "Hookah bar" is, however, misleading, because in keeping with the Islamic religion, most cafes do not serve alcohol.

Smoking shisha, which started with the Turks almost 500 years ago, is a Middle Eastern cultural activity that Americans have adopted since Sept. 11 and the advent of the Iraq War.

"With all the pressure of everything going on in the world today, this is the place to come and forget about everything for awhile," Hijazi said.

Arabian nights are no longer reserved for soldiers or diplomats overseas.

One can't help but get enveloped in the rising smoke of the hookah and get transported to a whimsical land ... back to the old days, when such an activity was reserved for only the upper class and royalty.

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