Just because the new ban on smoking inside in public places is coming doesn't mean everyone has to put their hookahs away. Local hookah smokers, and the businesses that attract them, have until January 2010 to figure out how to work around the new rules.
The EpiCentre lounge [PJ's Lounge] is one of several businesses to join the trend among young people to smoke flavored tobacco from a hookah, or water pipe, in a communal setting.But the growing popularity of hookah service at trendy Charlotte bars and throughout the state is in jeopardy with North Carolina's recent passage of a smoking ban.
The ban, effective Jan. 2, prohibits any form of lit tobacco in indoor bars and restaurants.
It's a Prohibition type of thing, said Jason Smalls, who tried hookah at PJ's for the first time Thursday. It's crazy. People shouldn't tell us what we can and can't do with our own money.
If all else fails, you could always make your own hookah.