Hookah lounge and night club to open downtown

by Michael Conner February 22, 2006

traight from a scene out of “Alice in Wonderland,” the Radford area will get its first taste of a hookah bar March 3 with the opening of Cairo Lounge LLC in downtown Radford (without the caterpillar of course). Cairo Lounge will open with a small event in March, and the grand opening will take place in April.

Cairo Lounge also incorporates a dance floor, which will make the lounge a mix between a Middle Eastern hookah bar and a modern dance club. The lounge is moving into the old residence of Dave’s, adjacent to Price-Williams Realty and the building will have a 75-seat capacity with a maximum occupancy rating of 100 people.

The lounge will offer 26 different varieties of flavored tobacco, or Shesha, ranging from plum and rose to raspberry and coconut. The flavored tobacco can be inhaled through any one of the 25 hookahs on hand by anyone who meets the lounge’s minimum age requirement of 18 years of age.

A hookah is a traditional Middle Eastern smoking pipe that works by using indirect heat to cook the tobacco and then water to filter the smoke.

Cairo Lounge will start business without the acquisition of an alcohol license, but senior Chris Lubsy, the owner of Cairo Lounge, hopes to get an alcohol license by the summer.

The absence of an alcohol license will not greatly affect Lusby’s main objective behind creating Cairo Lounge, which is to appeal to the Radford University students who are less than 21 years of age.

“Most of the students are actually under 21, and there’s nothing for them to do as far as night life goes,” Lusby said. “I just was annoyed that there was nothing for me to do [when I was under 21] except go to frat parties.”

Some RU students under 21 are excited at the possibility of a hookah lounge in downtown Radford.

“I’ve been to a couple of hookah bars, and I really like the atmosphere,” sophomore Brent Evans said. “I think the one in Radford will be really successful since it’ll be a new and fun hang out spot for everybody.”

Lusby thought up the idea of Cairo Lounge two years ago with three partners. Soon after, however, the partnership fell apart, and Lusby decided to pursue the venture alone.

When the property previously owned by Dave’s became available, Lusby decided to act on the plan he and his old partners drew up two years ago. Cairo Lounge is Lusby’s first entrepreneurial venture, and he hopes to offer RU students a relaxed place to hang out.

“It [Cairo Lounge] is going to give off a laidback feeling; it’s going to have a comfortable lounge atmosphere,” Lusby said.

Since hookah bars are traditionally from the Middle East, Lusby plans on incorporating Middle Eastern customs into many aspects of the lounge.

“[The decorations are] going to be kind of like mixing a Middle Eastern theme with a collegiate atmosphere,” Lusby said.

Food is another facet that Lusby plans on incorporating the Middle Eastern heritage in, but as of right now, the club will offer primarily American dishes.

“We are not going to serve a lot of the ethnic food right when we start off; it is mostly just going to be fries, burgers, chicken wings. You know, bar food,” Lusby said.

Lusby plans to hire a staff of close to 10 employees, and he has started the hiring process for an additional four waiters, three security guards and one chef.

Cairo Lounge is the first hookah bar in Radford, but it is not the first in the New River Valley. She-Sha Café and Hookah Lounge was founded in Blacksburg over two years ago, and they are welcoming the competition.

“If you have six coffee shops in one town, and they all do fairly well, I don’t think there is much of an aspect of competition, and I wish him the best,” She-Sha Café and Hookah Lounge owner Paul Santos said.

Lusby will not open the doors for another two weeks, but the intoxicating aroma of Shesha may put Radford in a spell.

“I hope to bring a new flavor to the city while remaining a well-run, safe place,” Lusby said.