Setting Up to Smoke Hooka

September 02,2005 | Matt Whittaker | The Monitor

McALLEN — The Smoke Shack isn’t what you’d expect from a hooka lounge. The smoke coming from the Eastern water pipes fills the establishment with a light, fruity smell. It’s open inside, and the chairs at glass tables and couches give it a more modern feel than Middle Eastern beads and rugs would.

Live music plays on the weekends, and when the stage isn’t in use, that area becomes more of a lounge, with pillows and rugs to lie back on while drawing coal-heated smoke from flavored tobacco through water in a hooka.

Last Friday, the opening night for what the owners say is the Rio Grande Valley’s first hooka lounge, the crowd was mostly young, early college age.

People sat on couches watching a Bollywood movie on a big-screen television. Omar Saenz, 19, his cousin, Edward Cárdenas, 30, and Brandon Williams, 19, who studies neuroscience at Brown University and is from Mission, shared a hooka with two hoses on a corner couch.

The Smoke Shack, at 2403 Buddy Owens Blvd. in McAllen, opened last Friday. It offers live music, wireless Internet access, and ethnic drinks and snacks. Owners Mujtaba Naqvi, left, and Farwa Naqvi show off some of their hookas. The couple has been married about a year, and Farwa Naqvi says they were brainstorming about business ideas on the way back from their wedding

Cárdenas, who runs a photography and graphic design business and lives in McAllen, welcomed the variety the establishment offered. "I think McAllen should embrace anything that’s different now," he said. "I like that it embraces the multiculturalism. A good sign that things are moving in the right direction. Things that don’t revolve around Bud Light and Miller Lite."

The pure tobacco, with no tar and very little nicotine, is flavored with syrup.

Prices for the three different types of hookas available are $22.50 for the basic model, $28.50 for a step up, and $34.99 for the nicest. A smoke lasts about an hour, and the pipes can be enjoyed in groups. A second hose is available per hooka, for an extra charge, and hoses come with hygienic tips for sharing. There’s also a discount for ordering more than one hooka.

The variations in the hookas are for aesthetics only and offer no difference in the smoking experience. It’s like eating on regular dishes, china or gold — the food’s the same.

The establishment’s owners, Farwa and Mujtaba Naqvi, have been married about a year, and the Smoke Shack is a labor of love.

Mujtaba, 28, moved to the United States from Pakistan last August for the wedding. His bride, a 24-year-old tourism director for the Greater Mission Chamber of Commerce, moved to the States when she was 2 years old and has been in the Valley for nine years, except for a stint at the University of Texas at Austin. They both were born in Karachi. The couple lives in Mission.

"The Valley grew up with me," Farwa said. Some of that growth includes an animal grooming establishment, and when she saw that, a hooka place didn’t seem so far-fetched.

"We were brainstorming on the way back from the wedding," she said. "Wouldn’t it be awesome to do this? If dogs can get perms, this is so happening. When the Valley was ready to give dogs perms, it was ready to smoke hookas."

Farwa said she hopes the Smoke Shack, at 2403 Buddy Owens Blvd., will cater to both a younger and professional crowd. But the couple wants to open another hooka lounge that will mainly focus on a younger or ethnic clientele.

The couple is also considering getting a permit to serve meals. While the Smoke Shack does not serve alcohol, it does offer ethnic drinks and snacks.

"Who doesn’t want to munch out when they’re smoking a shisha?" Farwa asked, referring to the flavored tobacco.

Her brother, Ali Naqvi, 18, a student at the University of Texas-Pan American, runs the establishment’s Web site, and he helped her husband paint its walls. Her parents helped get the Smoke Shack up and running and gave the couple a loan for the business.

The establishment is a free wireless Internet hub. It also offers a chess board and other games.

In addition to Mujtaba, Farwa and her brother, the Smoke Shack employs three people, but will likely have to hire more if the crowd last Friday was any indication. "If things stay like this, we can’t run with three people," Farwa said.

The Smoke Shack is open seven days a week, mostly in the evenings. Hours will be set in the future, as the owners continue to gauge demand. Call (956) 668-1313 or (956) 566-9910 or check the Web site, www.asmokinplace.com, to find out when it’s open. Customers must be 18 years old to get in.

On the corner couch, Saenz, a political science student at Austin College in Sherman who comes from Mission, enjoyed the Smoke Shack’s "mellow mood."

"I think it’s good for a broad spectrum of people," he said. "I think it’s great for the Valley."