SMOKING PASTIME
Middle Eastern custom arrives in El Paso

Humberto J. Vergara El Paso Times

After learning about the popularity of hookah bars, Tim Kiefer and Leonard Thomas reserved a corner of crimson velvet seats at the Hookah Experience.

The duo came over from Juárez to smoke out at the new lounge at 916 N. Mesa (Mesa and Rio Grande) named after a hookah, a centuries-old Middle Eastern tradition involving a water pipe filled with fruit-flavored tobacco.

"This is the place to come to," said Thomas, an intern at the U.S. Consulate in Juárez "I'm really enjoying it. I like the relaxed ambience."

According to http://hookahkings.com, the tobacco industry estimates that 200 to 300 hookah bars have opened across the United States in the past four years, and California is considered "the hookah capital of the world."

New York, Texas and Arizona are also popular spots for hookah bars, especially near college campuses.

"This is awesome," said Kiefer, an officer at the U.S. Consulate in Juárez. "It's somewhere relaxed and different to come to in El Paso."

Like many other hookah bars -- or shisha cafes, as they are known in the Middle East -- the lounge is classified as a tobacco bar and exempt from the city's 3-year-old smoking ban.

The El Paso City Council passed a clean-indoor-air ordinance in recognition of the growing evidence of the harmful effects of secondhand smoke.

Owner Adrian Vega prepared hookahs -- tobacco water pipes from the Middle Easet -- Friday night at the Hookah Experience, at Mesa and Rio Grande streets.

"Since the Hookah Experience is a retail tobacco store, tobacco may be smoked inside," said Adrian Vega, the owner of the club.

Vega got the idea of opening up a hookah bar after visiting one in Austin. The business major at the University of Texas at El Paso wanted to open a shisha cafe in town "because there wasn't one."

For him, a hookah bar is an opportunity to break away from the beer and liquor bars.

"I thought of the name Hookah Experience because I am a fan of the Jimi Hendrix Experience," Vega said.

The hookah pipes and the tobacco served at the lounge were bought from Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

The club also sells cigarettes, lighters and beverages, including juice and water. Vega has also added new tobacco flavors such as apple, coconut, grape honey, peach, pineapple and strawberry. For a complete list, visit the lounge's Web site www.hookahexperience.com.

The lounge serves mainly as a creative outlet, according to Mindy Chanson, who calls the lounge a "culture shock for El Paso."

"I feel El Paso is losing a lot of its artistic expression," said Chanson, who works at the lounge. "I think we can help incorporate art back into people's daily lives."

The club gets packed on Saturday nights with the advent of live belly-dancing performances every two weeks and live bands.

"Belly-dancing is also based upon Middle Eastern cultures, so the combination of both social activities is exotic," said Saz'hrah Gutierrez, the director of Baile de Fuego, an El Paso fire and belly-dance group.