Hookah Lounge

The hookah lounge (also called a shisha bar or den, especially in Britain and parts of Canada, or a hookah bar) is an establishment where patrons share shisha (flavored tobacco) from a communal hookah or nargile which is placed at each table.

The first Hookah Lounge in the United States dates back to 2000 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Paymon Raouf, owner of Paymon's Mediterranenan Cafe and Hookah Lounge was the first to use the name and has since set the trend for other Hookah operators. Once established he quickly created the domain name hookahlounge.com. He was the first to incorporate a full-service lounge featuring alcohol, food and hookahs with the emphasis on hookah smoking. Although the name hookah lounge was trademarked by Raouf, he allowed others to use the term for their own operations to help in bringing awareness to this cultural phenomenon. Some hookah lounges are business modeled as such from their inception. Others are cafés or other establishments to which the element of hookah smoking was added later. Hookah lounges of all sorts have become popular in parts of Europe and North America in the last decade.

Read more about Hookah Lounge:  Characteristics, History, In Europe, In The United States, Smoking Bans

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