Holland's first hookah lounge provides gathering place, culture

    Holland’s first hookah lounge offers a new activity and culture for locals 18 and up.

    Hookah Lounge of Holland, located at 960 Butternut Drive in Holland Township, is owned by two brothers and their father who have experience in the business.

    Moe Shayeb, co-owner, moved to Holland from Chicago 4 years ago. He owns a hookah lounge in Chicago, and previously owned a cash for gold store in Holland.

    Shayeb started working toward opening the Holland lounge in September 2014.

    “Every time I wanted to smoke hookah, I had to drive all the way to Grand Rapids or Kalamazoo or to Allendale” he said. “When it’s snowing, I can’t drive. It clicked to me that I had to open up a hookah lounge in Holland because I really found out that there’s really nothing to do in Holland, especially for people 18 and up.”

    The lounge provides an alternative kind of hangout place for anyone 18 or older, Shayeb said.

    “It’s a new culture that I’m bringing to Holland Township,” he said.

    A hookah looks similar to a vase, and is used for vaporizing and smoking flavored tobacco, called shisha. The bottom of the hookah is filled with water, and the top is filled with shisha, which passed through the water basin before inhalation.

    At Hookah Lounge of Holland, the shisha comes in flavors such as white grape, passion kiss, tequila sunrise, watermelon and wildberry mint. The menu lists 31 flavors, and an option for custom mixes. The lounge will also substitute water with ice water, milk or Red Bull.

    Hookah is thought to have originated in the Middle East during the 1500s.

    Small studies of adults in the U.S. show high rates of hookah smoking among college students with past year use ranging from 22 percent to 40 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC. The trend is also growing among high school students.

    “College students will come in during the day and just sit down, smoke hookah, have their music and do their homework,” Shayeb said. “It’s a gathering place.”

    The lounge does not serve alcohol or food. Food can be brought in by customers, but alcohol can not, he said.

    Shayeb owns the lounge with his brother Mike Shayeb and father Sal Ahmed.
Resource: http://www.hollandsentinel.com/article/20160130/NEWS/160139988