A Peek Into Lounge Ownership...

[Canon]

i take it that they pass out from CO2 poisoning and not buzz? guess they dont like buying new bowls? how much do you charge?

[NoPeace]

mush if you ever open up another hookah bar you HAVE to make it in the DC or DC suburb area because you have no idea how bad hookah bars are here. the only one that isnt over 20 bucks a person is this place in tenelytown called princes which is 14 bucks a person and you get a 5-10 gram bowl with al waha. they dont give you tongs and they only give you one coal or you have to pay alot extra. the smoke is terribly harsh and no flavor. its actually a disgusting place. PLEASE SAVE US!!! lol

[mushrat]

i take it that they pass out from CO2 poisoning and not buzz? guess they dont like buying new bowls? how much do you charge?

usually Nicotine poisoning, lack of oxygen, empty stomachs, that sorta thing. Often they have smoked more than 1 hookah session, whch here can last around 2 hours.

8 bucks for AA,Layalina,AF, AJ 10 bucks for Tangiers, 12 for SB

unlimited coals, up to 4, I'll push 5 per hookah.

[mushrat]

mush if you ever open up another hookah bar you HAVE to make it in the DC or DC suburb area because you have no idea how bad hookah bars are here. the only one that isnt over 20 bucks a person is this place in tenelytown called princes which is 14 bucks a person and you get a 5-10 gram bowl with al waha. they dont give you tongs and they only give you one coal or you have to pay alot extra. the smoke is terribly harsh and no flavor. its actually a disgusting place. PLEASE SAVE US!!! lol

with rents around there I'd probably have to charge an arm and a leg too..but atlast it would be good smoking. I don't normally give tongs either...too many chances for people to make a mess, but i tend the hookahs non-stop so you don't really need to do much yourselves. I believe in customer service.

[NoPeace]

yea they dont at all.they literally give you shit for anythign and everything

[mushrat]

Last saturday was a great day...

One girl passed out while paying. She gave Lum here money, he turned to the register, got her change, turned aroudn to give it to her, she was gone. Then he looked down and she was laying on the floor and people including me were rushing to see if she was ok. Then some prick pissed all over the men's room floor. probably aiming at that second bowl he saw...don't hookah drunk...

and finally, a friend come to me late and says "i hate to say this, but you'd better check out the hall." some guy had projectile puked down part of the hall, the floor, the walls, some boxes I had there, a display case...never heard it, the asshole never said anything to anyone.

Was a lovely evening...

[mushrat]

So....went to court tuesday.

Some how my lawyer got a really sweet deal..makes me wonder what the hell is going on but that's another story.

For accepting improper ID's and serving 2 18 year olds i have to do 24 hours community service and pay $200 for the privilage. Theit gets expunged from my record. Still have to face the alchohol lisenceing board. That'll be less fun.

On a brighter side I plan on sueing the 2 underage drinkers for damages. It's being done in a lot of states and I'm going to try teaming up wiht a few other bars who have been busted lately and see who we can fuck up...

Just another fun part of owning a bar...

[MechAnt]

Man mush. That really is some tough stuff. I'm still completely down for a Hookah Bliss franchise

[SimplexCoda]

I have been wondering about opening a shop in my area and i know you dont live in the same state as i do but you may know how i can find out about the laws and such concerning a lounge.

[RayVer]

Mush thats crazy with the improper ID's... Theres this hookah bar down in miami in the grove called Oasis. Behind the cash register they have the "wall of shame". It's like 30 fake IDs they've confiscated over their time. Maybe you should do something like that

[mushrat]

I have been wondering about opening a shop in my area and i know you dont live in the same state as i do but you may know how i can find out about the laws and such concerning a lounge.

What state do you live in?

[mushrat]

Mush thats crazy with the improper ID's... Theres this hookah bar down in miami in the grove called Oasis. Behind the cash register they have the "wall of shame". It's like 30 fake IDs they've confiscated over their time. Maybe you should do something like that

I'm probably gonna do that....

[guyt]

The restaurant I work at almost lost its liquor license because there is some watch dog group or what ever full of assholes that pay kids that are 20 and 11 months old to try to buy alcohol so that the waiter might get confused and sell them alcohol. They bought a beer and reported the restaurant. My boss flipped a bitch. First offense since the store opened fifteen years ago and it was a 5000 dollar fine. They said second time he loses the liquor license. Fucken assholes with no life. Edited March 1, 2008 by guyt

[mushrat]

Ahh..like my friends here, the coalition for alchohol and drug free teens of chapel hill anmd carrboro. They are on my list as well...but later...

[SimplexCoda]

I live in New Mexico

[mushrat]

I live in New Mexico

The state governmen t site is the best place to start.

http://www.newmexico.gov/online_services.php

http://www.edd.state.nm.us/

http://www.newmexico.gov/business.php

it looked like these pages had good info.

[SimplexCoda]

Hey sweet thanks mush.

[sir atherton III]

i'm opening up a small hookah venue in texas and need some help with initial budget calculations-

assuming 20-30 hookahs in operation (and assuming a relatively slow start), how many grams of tobacco and how many pieces of coal would be a minimally sufficient supply for a month?

any help is appreciated

[mushrat]

i'm opening up a small hookah venue in texas and need some help with initial budget calculations-

assuming 20-30 hookahs in operation (and assuming a relatively slow start), how many grams of tobacco and how many pieces of coal would be a minimally sufficient supply for a month?

any help is appreciated

How many hookahs per day is what you should think about. Figure an average weekday and then an average weekend. Are you going to have a tiered menu or all one price? Regular Mya bowls? Phunnels if you use Tangiers? What type of coals? Finger coals, quicklites, japs? Hours of operation? Unlimited coal refills? A little more detail would be necessary before I can give you any sort of meaningful answer.

[sir atherton III]

i'm opening up a small hookah venue in texas and need some help with initial budget calculations-

assuming 20-30 hookahs in operation (and assuming a relatively slow start), how many grams of tobacco and how many pieces of coal would be a minimally sufficient supply for a month?

any help is appreciated

How many hookahs per day is what you should think about. Figure an average weekday and then an average weekend. Are you going to have a tiered menu or all one price? Regular Mya bowls? Phunnels if you use Tangiers? What type of coals? Finger coals, quicklites, japs? Hours of operation? Unlimited coal refills? A little more detail would be necessary before I can give you any sort of meaningful answer.

initially, you'll have to excuse my ignorance regarding the business as i have no tangible frame of reference or guidance on the technical aspects.
anyhow, i'm calculating a realistically slow start, so mon-thur (8pm - 12am), let's say i sell a total of 20 hookahs total. fri/sat (8-2am), let's assume a total of 40 hookahs. (are these figures reasonable in a slow start scenario?)

additionally, let's assume a very simplistic set-up, meaning everything is one price, regular mya bowls (do these hold an average of 5 g. per?), unlimited quicklighting coals (i'd hate to compromise taste in the beginning, but i'll have minimal staff in the outset and i figure this would be most efficient).

thanks

[yeshua_cxc]

Hey mush, I may be moving from CA to Wake Forest come Dec/Jan to go to Grad school. I'll for sure have to stop by when I get out there.

[Dom]

the more i read from this, the more i want to open up a lounge in my home town back in Texas. it sounds like a great challenge and an even greater opportunity. i know a guy who is my age (23) and he owns his own lounge and hookah store. freakin' amazing. if he can do it, then who's to say i can't do it? and it's threads like these that help me do it. thanks for this thread, guys.


BTW, i'd like to encourage everyone to read this post:
http://www.hookahforum.com/index.php?showtopic=18937
it's for my wife's birthday. i'm trying to get as many posts on there as possible. thanks.

[mushrat]

i'm opening up a small hookah venue in texas and need some help with initial budget calculations-

assuming 20-30 hookahs in operation (and assuming a relatively slow start), how many grams of tobacco and how many pieces of coal would be a minimally sufficient supply for a month?

any help is appreciated

How many hookahs per day is what you should think about. Figure an average weekday and then an average weekend. Are you going to have a tiered menu or all one price? Regular Mya bowls? Phunnels if you use Tangiers? What type of coals? Finger coals, quicklites, japs? Hours of operation? Unlimited coal refills? A little more detail would be necessary before I can give you any sort of meaningful answer.

initially, you'll have to excuse my ignorance regarding the business as i have no tangible frame of reference or guidance on the technical aspects.
anyhow, i'm calculating a realistically slow start, so mon-thur (8pm - 12am), let's say i sell a total of 20 hookahs total. fri/sat (8-2am), let's assume a total of 40 hookahs. (are these figures reasonable in a slow start scenario?)

additionally, let's assume a very simplistic set-up, meaning everything is one price, regular mya bowls (do these hold an average of 5 g. per?), unlimited quicklighting coals (i'd hate to compromise taste in the beginning, but i'll have minimal staff in the outset and i figure this would be most efficient).

thanks

Ok, actually those are probably good numbers to start with, depending on the size of your place, the numbe rof people you allow on a hookah at one time, and of course the number of hookahs you have to serve with.

My place seats 22 legally, though I know i sometimes go over that. I have 13 hookahs to bring out, up from an initial 11. I believe the mya bowls hold 15-20 g. depending on how you pack them. and a standard tub is 250 g. I used to get kilo buckets but they really arent worth the little bit of money you save. so 160 hookahs per week = 3200 g. Now add in a bit of wasteage. say 100 g woth of stuff on the counter, floor, etc. so 3300 g. per week. So we Have 12.8 250g tubs per week or 51.2 tubs a month. Someone check the math for me...

Now you have to figure some flavours are going to sell better than others, so you'll need extras of those and fewer of soem of the good but less popular brands/flavours.

So..lets now consider supply. You are in textas, as is Social Smoke, I'd give Ali a call and talk to him about prices and such. This also means that you are lucky enough that you should be able to get restocked from them in 1-2 days. So, you don't need to do what I first did, living on the east coast before we got a distributor in Charlotte, and order a bunch of stuff and then wait a week for UPS to deliver it, and have to plan a week ahead for re-supply. If you run short, you call and 2 days later you have the goods. Which is great.

If I were you, I'd say get 6-8 250's of each flavour you want to carry. Get 2 500g cartons of the 50g small boxes for sale and to give away with your hookahs if you are selling them as well.

as for coals. I personally would rather be closed than use quick lights. They are going to cost you more per hookah than say finger coals, people will notice that you are useing them, and I'd just say get a hot plate, a few cast iron couldrons, and do it up right. You may re-coal more often, but thats how you build your rappor with you customers. The place will bring them in, how you and your staff interact with them will keep them coming back. Trust me on this one. But to figure coals in your costs, see how many it takes for you and say 2 friends to smoke for 1 1/2 hours. then multiply that by 160 and you'll have how many coals you need per week.

Do you have a tax ID number yet? OPnce you get that, you'll be able to talk with the supply companies and they will give you wholesale prices, which we don't discuss here.

That help?

(pretty soon I'm gonna start charging for this.... )

[mushrat]

the more i read from this, the more i want to open up a lounge in my home town back in Texas. it sounds like a great challenge and an even greater opportunity. i know a guy who is my age (23) and he owns his own lounge and hookah store. freakin' amazing. if he can do it, then who's to say i can't do it? and it's threads like these that help me do it. thanks for this thread, guys.


BTW, i'd like to encourage everyone to read this post:
http://www.hookahforum.com/index.php?showtopic=18937
it's for my wife's birthday. i'm trying to get as many posts on there as possible. thanks.

Hell man, I am fricking 40 and I started this one with never having opened or run a business before. If my ass can do it, anyone can. You just gotta be real smart..oh ya..unless you are REAL lucky, it's not going to go over well with the wife..trust me.

[mushrat]

Hey mush, I may be moving from CA to Wake Forest come Dec/Jan to go to Grad school. I'll for sure have to stop by when I get out there.

Please do! tell me who you are and the first hookah is on the house!

I have family in the Winston Salem area, I go up there ever few weeks, we'll have to get togther for a smoke. That area is on my little list of places that need a hookah bar.