Hookah bars lighting up New Orleans night life

Monday, August 23, 2004
By Lynne Jensen

When it came time to puff the hookah, Paul Burton smiled. Not only did the 16-year-old have his mother's permission to smoke the exotic water pipe, she sat at his side, drawing cooled, jasmine-and-mango-flavored tobacco from the gurgling urn of glass and brass.

He's almost 17, Gail Sissenwein of Mandeville said. I told him he could not smoke cigarettes, but he could smoke here tonight.

Sissenwein and her son were among many at a hookah cafe in the Faubourg Marigny, an Indian-style oasis for seasoned smokers as well as a hip place for older teens and young adults to hang out without drinking alcohol.

Designed with one or more long tubes passing through an urn of water that cools the smoke as it's drawn, the hookah, or narghile, is relatively new to America but has been popular for hundreds of years in Asia, Africa and Europe.

The water pipe's appeal has more to do with sharing conversation than tobacco.

One nationwide hookah supplier estimates there are about 500 hookah cafes and bars in the United States.

As is the case with most fads, it took a bit longer for hookah smoke to drift from the Middle East to New Orleans than to New York and Los Angeles. But the appeal of the hookah scene, especially to young people, appears as strong in the Crescent City as it is across the country.

It's just chill and relax, Andrew Steiner, 20, said Wednesday night, blowing smoke rings into the darkness of the dimly lit hookah cafe. The quiet and posh surroundings of the cafe are a welcome retreat from his job as a go-go dancer at a Bourbon Street pub, where he needs ear plugs to survive a night of blaring music, he said.

While the mohawk-shorn Steiner dined on Indian fusion food and shared an octopus-like hookah with nine people of various ages, three women in their 20s sat at a smaller table, sharing a final smoke of orange and sage tobacco from their pipe before two of them headed off to out-of-town colleges.

At the lounge, tobaccos range from about $10 to $20. Blends including apple, mango and plum can be filtered through a water or other liquids, including cranberry juice, milk or wine. Each 'bowl' of packed tobacco smoked through the pipe usually lasts about 45 minutes. Each smoker gets a disposable plastic mouthpiece.

Setting her pack of cigarettes aside, Vanessa King took a long drag from the hookah and talked about leaving for school in London. She was familiar with the bubbling pipe since her father's job took her family to Ecuador for three years.

Hookah cafes are natural gathering spots for young people there, King's sister, Sarah, 22, said.

Though some hookah promoters say smoking tobacco filtered through water is safer than puffing cigarettes and cigars, one of the first studies published on hookah smoking indicates that hookahs pose the same health risks, such as exposure to carbon dioxide and increased heart rate.

Danny Goldrick, research director for the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, said studies on water-pipe smoking are scarce because hookah bars are so new to the United States.

But hookahs are not a safe alternative to cigarettes, Goldrick said. Smoking tobacco in any form should be discouraged because nicotine addiction develops rapidly, he said.

Like any fad, young people are attracted to the hookah scene because it's fun or popular, Goldrick said. Flavored tobaccos used in the hookahs are targeted to young smokers and are dangerously appealing, he said.

We would hope this is a passing fad, like cigar bars, he said.

Cabdrivers Oukacha Belkacem, 34, of Morocco and Mourah Habli, 31, of Tunisia said they hope hookah cafes flourish in New Orleans. They frequent the cafe several days a week to smoke sweet tobaccos, drink strong Turkish coffee and talk.

Of the two dining and smoking rooms at the cafe, Belkacem and Habli said they prefer the one dotted with more ottomans than chairs. The atmosphere reminds them of home, they said.

And better yet, unlike many smoky bars in the city, the cafe doesn't stink, Habli said.