The Tempe smoking ban can suck on it. And so can you.
It has been nearly a year since citizens of Tempe voted on an ordinance to ban smoking in bars and restaurants. But since then, the locals have adapted. Instead of lighting up cigarettes in clubs, many are now stoking up their hookahs at three local Tempe smoking venues.
Brandon Kline, a junior business major and patron of King Tut's on Apache Boulevard between Rural Road and McClintock Drive, describes the smoke from a hookah as, "very light" and "very different from the harshness of cigarettes."
Originating in Middle Eastern countries like Egypt, Syria, and Turkey approximately 500 years ago, smoking a hookah is a traditional way for people to gather and relax.
Napoly Salloum, owner of the Red Sea Café on Rural Road and University Drive, says the increasing popularity of the hookah, especially with college students, is because "the coffee shop trend has worn out. People want to try something different."
The design of the hookah makes smoking it a singular experience. At the very top of the upright pipe there is a clay bowl filled with shisha. It is a mixture of tobacco leaves, honey, molasses, and different spices to give it various flavors and has a sticky consistency and an aromatic fragrance, similar to ripened fruit. Some of the most popular blends are white peach, passion fruit and fakhfakhina, which Salloum describes as having, "a mild Hi-C fruit punch flavor."
On top of the clay shisha bowl rests several pieces of burning charcoal that ignite the tobacco mixture and allows the smoker to pull the smoke through the main shaft of the pipe into the water-filled base. In the base, the ice-cold water filters the smoke and dramatically cools it down, producing a pleasingly mild draw.
There are only four places in the Valley where rookie waterpipe smokers and the experienced alike can experience smoking from a hookah, three of which are located in Tempe.
King Tut's, which also serves Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisine, is the most laid back of the three and has recently undergone extensive renovation. Groups of people sit in cozy sections of Arabic-style seating, which is basically pillows and cushions low enough on the floor for patrons to sit cross-legged comfortably. It's relatively quiet and open late so a lot of students go here to study. Joe Graves, 19, a Glendale resident says, "We come down here [to King Tut's] about once a month." Graves draws and releases another mouthful from his hose and leans back in his cushion, as his friend Brandon Kline, a business junior, says, "This place is cool. I like the music here and it fits the image of a place where you would smoke a hookah."
If you want a party atmosphere, go to Oasis Cafe on Apache Boulevard on a Thursday or weekend night because they entertain their patrons with another great Middle Eastern tradition: belly dancing. These are popular nights for students to go and unwind while watching the ornately costumed dancers put Shakira to shame.
Finally, if you're looking for somewhere to ease into the whole mysterious Middle Eastern scene, you might want to start off with the Red Sea Café on Rural Road near University Drive. The décor and overall atmosphere is not as influenced by Arabic culture as the latter two places. Instead of cushions and pillows there are plush chairs and velvet couches, and instead of girls belly dancing, one of their recent performers played acoustic guitar music. But the Red Sea Café offers the same draw as the others: an atmosphere different than most offered in Tempe.
Zack Everman, 23, gently pulls a draw of strawberry-flavored tobacco smoke through a hookah at the Red Sea Café.
"It is how I wind down at the end of my day. I smoke every day. To me it is like having a Coke."
Reach the reporters at joy.hepp@asu.edu and david.lukens@asu.edu.
