Picking up Hookahs in South Beach!
Americans are always willing to embrace odd bits of world culture, and on a recent weekend we were dazzled to discover that South Beach seems to have gone crazy over HOOKAHS!
Hookahs are water pipes (the original bongs) with a number of long, silk-wrapped hoses used to share the smoke of a burning “massel” - tobacco soaked in a sweet syrup of molasses and fruit flavor. The world may have made smoking in public places illegal, but hookah devotees flock to a number of Miami Beach nightspots to gather around these elaborate pipes to puff into the night.
The Ritz Carlton South Beach has long provided a tropical escape at happy hour at the Dilido Beach Club (1 Lincoln Road). One of the most beautiful beach front gathering spots, the club features a Mediterranean style tapas menu and has offered free champagne to ladies on Friday nights. Sensing a shift in public tastes, Thursday and Friday nights are now Hookah Happy Hours. Guests recline in breezy cabanas to sip specialty sangrias and share a shisha pipe under the stars.
Chef Jeff McInnis tweaked his signature Sun Cuisine towards the southern coast of Spain (and perhaps a side step to Morocco) for guests who enjoy a night of fragrant flavored tobaccos and a chance to feel like members of a very chic harem. Local hipsters have embraced the trend with new-found passion making hookah lounges a lucrative venture for savvy Miami Beach promoters. The Ritz offers guests free use of the hookah pipes from 5pm-8pm, Thursday and Friday nights with the purchase of food.
On the Lincoln Road Mall, D’Vine Hookah Lounge props huge cushions and cozy lounges out on the promenade so guests can enjoy a smoke and some world-class people watching. With prices ranging from $18-$45 dollars, the sidewalk club (445 Lincoln Road) is often filled to capacity on weekends. Tapas with the flavors of the Middle East and Italy are available nightly as well as soups, salads and a few small pizzas served until 2am.
Tantra Lounge (1445 Pennsylvania Avenue), has long offered guests use of ornate hookah pipes as part of their sensual pleasures menu. At $20 an hour, requests for the fragrant pipes are on the rise. While pipe smoking clubs have been very popular in New York and Los Angeles, Miamians flock to about a dozen destinations in Dade County. Tantra was recently listed among the country’s top Hookah Bars at fan site SouthSmoke.com.
If you are curious about this new exotic trend, be warned that smoking tobacco through a water pipe is as dangerous and habit-forming as cigarette usage. In fact, water pipe users are inhaling charcoal smoke and a good deal more nicotine than they would by smoking the occasional cigarette at a bar. In response to health concerns, some clubs offer a tobacco free herbal alternative. Smoking herbal massel is a safer way to check out the hookah scene in South Beach. As celebrants of the underground 4/20 holiday might tell you today, herbal usage is always the best way to go!
Leave a Comment