Health Concerns

City Looking to Shut Down All Hookah Lounges

Goodbye, Dream Hookah Lounge! Farewell, Cairo Nights. That’s what the city’s department of public health is saying as they crack down on seventeen hookah-friendly establishments across town, demanding they stop with the smokiness immediately. For your own safety, people, and following on the clear rules set out by a new city ordinance a year ago, there shall be no indoor or patio smoking of any kind, even if it is framed as a kind of cross-cultural slumming and not quite like regular smoking. Restaurants like Marrakech and Pride of the Mediterranean that have maintained areas where hookah smoking has been condoned are getting their hands slapped and will have to comply with smoking laws now, just like every other restaurant and bar. And so much for new businesses trying to do the hookah thing, like Arabian Nights in the Mission, and Mela near Civic Center, will which now need to convert to regular restaurant/lounges. [SFGate via SFist]

City Looking to Shut Down All Hookah Lounges