Starting up a Hookah Bar

[old hippie dave]

i/m renting the unit next to my exsting bizness in may and starting a coffeeshop and hooka bar. in florida if u sell less than 10% food u can get a smoken exemption. i will be serving espresso beer wine soda fancy pastrys and baged snacks and hookahs 31 differant flavors. i figgure if i do all the start up
it will cost 20 to 25 grand 884 sq ft. will seat about 50. Called Coffeeshop580
i/ll keep ya posted how it/s going

[shaun.p.lawrence]

Sounds like a good investment to me.

[crud3w4re]

But ...isn't this bad for you? http://www.thetruth.com

[old hippie dave]

so is eating lead paint chips.....ya give people wat they want...nobody forcing u to smoke

[shaun.p.lawrence]

So does anyone think that starting a service that rents hookah's to party's is a good venture? Kind of like how people rent kegs.

[rimabean]

I'm planing on starting up a hookah bar in western PA. If anyone has some good advice regarding the best suppliers, or just ideas in general, please email me at rimabean@gmail.com.

[zoobie]

Hookah business is pretty smoking nowadays. I've seen in one of the local shows here in the Philippines that Hookah bars are starting to become popular in the west.

I think it would be a great business especially in America which is the melting pot of almost all cultures.

[old hippie dave]

i went to a resturant auction the otter day and got some killer deals. I got a set of booths nobody wanted to bid on for 100 bucks. a real nice dobble keg cooler for $600.00. A 200 pound ice machine for $600.00. 40 cane back chairs with padded seats for $70.00 and the deal of the day a old commercial espresso machine that nobody wanted for $65.00 i looked it up new it/s $2500.00
so far i/m $3000.00 under budget

[ideas2earn]

Just an idea, but if the start up costs are too high, why not approach existing coffee shop, or even internet cafe owners and offer to supply hookahs and split the profits? You could breathe new life into their food and drink business aswell as generating and income for yourself.

[ShishaNextStarbucks]

seems like lot of people are in the same situation as me...eh its hard.

[ideas2earn]

I wrote about this on my website today, its kind of a fun project I think and very doable with the right backing. I won't reproduce it all here as it is quite long but you can go to www.ideas2earn.com and check it out. If it's gone just go to the archive for Marcg 14

[Xanifur]

Just google it and look at the pictures.

Haha. Funny.

[mxer210]

Hookah seems to be a fad so be careful. There has been a surge of new hookah bars recently, but if the fad dies away make sure you still have a viable business model.

[Steveramil]

Anybody purchase anything from the hookabusiness site?

[David Rocci]

I had a great friend open a Hookah bar in my former college town. We spent countless days researching suppliers and whatnot. He ended up importing his own supply from the UAE.

The key to his place is ambience and activities. They serve specialty fruit smoothies, exotic bottled drinks and they also have a sandwich menu (panini). The real boost to his business came when they granted him a beer and wine license.

He has live music, open-mic nights and late-night food menu. It's a tough business to remain successful because something as trendy as hookah can quickly become un-trendy! You have to balance the revenue streams (food, late night, bands, hookah, etc) to remain ahead of the game.

Plus, the equipment for all that stuff is UBER expensive. refrigerators, coolers, deli meat equipment, etc, etc... it's a serious undertaking.

Good luck!