I wonder how the smoking law in restaurants affects a place with hookahs...Well, I'm glad you asked. . .I got this in my email from the JR.
Hookah bars make changes to comply with new smoking laws
By Brandice J. Armstrong (
[email protected])
The Journal Record
OKLAHOMA CITY – The new restaurant smoking laws going into effect today include hookah bars located in restaurants. In order to comply with new regulations, hookah bar owners who wanted to keep their business had to construct a separately ventilated room, or otherwise eliminate hookah smoking from their restaurant.
Magic Lamp Imports and Deli at 7429 N. May Ave. removed hookah, a feature it had for three years. International Groceries & Hookah Bar at 1303 Jenkins Ave. in Norman opted to comply with the new regulations, a decision that cost owner Mohammad “Moe” Davani about $7,000.
The Oklahoma Smoking in Public Places and Indoor Workplaces Act, which prohibits smoking in those areas unless there is a separately ventilated area, was passed in September 2003 but gave restaurants 30 months to conform their businesses.
“Most of my sales are from hookah smoking,” Davani said.
Davani said 60 percent of his overall sales are from hookah, 30 percent are from groceries and 10 percent is from food.
Despite the bad rap hookah smoking gained in the 1960s from users putting opium or marijuana in their pipes, hookah smoking is a Middle Eastern tradition that began more than 500 years ago. Flavored tobacco that has less than 0.5 percent nicotine and no tar is added to the pipe’s bowl with water in the base. Flavors include strawberry, apple, grape, jasmine, mint and pear, among many others.
When a smoker sucks on the hose, air is removed from the hookah, which causes the charcoal to heat the tobacco that rests beneath it under foil. The smoke is pulled into the pipe and filtered through the water, according to several hookah Web sites.
“It’s safer than cigarette smoke,” Davani said. “When people have no place to go, they’ll come here.”
Davani offers more than 31 flavors and charges $10 a hookah for up to two people.
There are few places go to smoke hookah in the Greater Oklahoma City metro.
Davani has offered hookah since Jan. 1, 2005, and can accommodate up to 65 smokers at a time. Open Monday through Saturday, he averages about 45-60 customers a week, many of whom are repeat patrons.
Magic Lamp had 24 flavors and could serve between 20 and 60 patrons. Only about 10 patrons per week smoked hookah. Magic Lamp charged $8 for the first smoker and $2 each additional smoker up to four people per hookah before 5 p.m. After 5 p.m., a hookah was $10 for the first smoker and $3 each additional smoker up to four people per hookah.
“It wasn’t that strong (of a business) and we didn’t want it to be that strong,” said Alan Fila, co-owner of Magic Lamp. “It was not significant but it did fit the atmosphere of the restaurant.”
Magic Lamp brought in about $80 each week from hookah smoking, Fila said.
Due to the new law, Fila opted to discontinue hookah smoking. He said adding a separate ventilation room that complied with the law could cost him between $15,000 and $30,000.
“It’s not economically feasible,” Fila said.
Fila said he expects to lose business initially, but after about a week and a half, business should pick up. Magic Lamp will continue to operate as a deli and serve Middle Eastern cuisine.
“We’ll look for other avenues to replace that income,” Fila said.
Davani had the appropriate work done to his 36-foot by 28-foot dining area the day before the new law took effect.
He added the ventilation system and a door to separate the dining area from the 15-by-30-foot kitchen and 7-by-19-foot dishwasher area. Groceries and the 78-inch commercial freezer were moved into the kitchen.
“I had to move everything around,” Davani said.
Fila sold his hookahs and accessories to LiT, a bar at 208 E. Sheridan Ave. in Bricktown. LiT is excused from the new smoking law but is categorized in the stand-alone bar exemption.
Several factors must be met in order to qualify for the exemption. Patrons younger than 21 cannot be admitted and 60 percent of gross receipts must be from alcohol and low-point beer, said Bob Miner, Clean Indoor Air coordinator for the Oklahoma State Department of Health.
At a cost of $10 per hookah, LiT offers 13 flavors and only three hookahs can used at a time. LiT is open in the evenings into early morning hours on Monday through Saturday.