High on the hookah

By: SUBHRO SAHA

Sipping exotic malts, tucking into myriad Mediterranean delights like the Kebab-e-Kohat or Shish Tawook, enjoying a drag or two of flavoured Arabian hookahs, or just chilling to lilting lounge, R&B and classic rock riffs…

Partying in Calcutta has never been the same since September 20, 2003 when Shisha — The Hookah Bar, the first-of-its-kind hookah bar and night lounge in the city, opened its doors at 22, Camac Street.

Since that ceremonial launch (by actress Neha Dhupia), Shisha, an offering from the Sanjeev Kapoor-signature Grain of Salt stable, has become one of the city's hottest party pads, contributing considerably to the birth of the Wednesday and Friday night concept of partying that is so hip now.

As the popular den gears up to mark its second anniversary in style, the management, while taking a bow to acknowledge the “unbelievable response”, vows to keep reinventing the rendezvous for the city’s lounge lizards.

“It was during one of the routine brainstorming sessions of the directors that we hit upon the concept. Grain of Salt was already an established world cuisine restaurant and we were trying to figure out what could be done to take the property a step forward,” recalls Nitin Kohli, director.

There was a proposal from a director to do something with the bar, which at that point of time, “wasn’t a very popular choice”.

The core team agreed, and the hunt for new ideas and concepts to be “different from the rest of the gang” was on in earnest.

“There was quite a bit of recognised competition and we were entering a new kind of service experience. One of the directors suggested a hookah bar and it was a novel concept for the entire management to chew on,” says Pankaj Tandon, administration head.

After a scramble for information and extensive travel in West Asia to fine-tune the format of the new place, the impression of the hookah bar was finalised. “We decided to name it Shisha, simply because it means hookah, just spelt differently,” says Kohli.

Once the concept was frozen, Ajay Arya of A Square Designs was assigned for design solution and interiors. “We researched extensively and also studied Calcutta’s preferences before settling for an exotic Mediterranean menu, suitably mutated to suit the local palate,” says Tandon.

The fare at Shisha includes Arabian specialities like Shish Kebab, Mishwi, Pitta Sandwich, Samak B’ Tahini, Falafel, Baba Ganouj, Humus Bi Tahini and Fatoush…to go with the hookahs, the exotic flavoured tobaccos and the over 21 types of Scotch and other liquor.

“We also have a specially-appointed adviser to educate the guest on the flavoured tobaccos for hookahs, etiquette like not lighting a cigarette from the hookah coal and how flavoured tobacco is filtered through water,” says Arvind Bhatnagar, head of operations.

Shisha has over 25 flavours of tobacco for the hookahs like cherry, pineapple, mint, rose and peach. The hookahs, made of glass, with the chillum (the container holding the hot coal), were initially specially imported from West Asia along with the flavours, but are locally available now.

For many regulars, though, it’s the music that makes the place, and over the past two years, Shisha has cultivated dedicated sets of clientele for different nights of the week through its set themes. If Wednesdays and Fridays are more about lounge, R&B and hip-hop, Saturday sees a spin of house and Bollywood tracks.

Sunday is more of straight-ahead classic rock to “ease stressed-out minds and prepare them for the week”. While typical lounge strains like Karunesh and the Buddha Bar series rule till around 10.30 pm, in-house DJ Girish swings to more innovative stuff after that, switching from psychedelic to trance to hip-hop, gauging the mood.

“We really owe it to the people who frequent this place. They have given every theme night a defined identity. While early evening is mostly light lounge, we have noticed guests often like it pumped up a bit around midnight and so we do some dance beats as well. The fundamental premise is not refusing a request, but we have tried to ensure the quality isn’t diluted,” smiles Girish.

Bursting at the seams (Saturday night footfall often tops 700), Shisha has felt the need to double its space on Saturday nights by including the adjacent banquet to accommodate its growing list of Platinum members and party guests.

“From March next year, we will permanently increase the accommodation two-fold,” promises Kohli.
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