Hookah blog number one! Vick and I spent our Thursday night smoking 4 HOURS of Hookah at the Hookah Lounge in Glendale. Kind of a sketchy little spot, but Hookah by nature is supposed to be sketchy, right? We had a good time. First we tried a flavor called Lemon Mint, which was very soothing and hit the spot pretty nicely. We ordered the “Middle Eastern” platter, which came with Hummus (yum), Labne (yummier), Salad (mmhmm) and…this eggplant pepper spread called Ikra that was ORGASMIC! I literally looked up a recipe when I got home so I could make 80 more pounds of the stuff. Whoa.
The ambience was decent, not the best of the best. It was a little dark (especially for the NERDS trying to do homework on their laptop- um, go to Starbucks?) and the music got a little loud at points. One thing that I like though, was that it didn’t feel super pretentious. Sometimes I want to feel like I’m rich and famous. But most of the time, I don’t want to pay my life savings for a fricking water pipe with flavored tobacco and some token side dishes.
I love the reviews on Yelp. There is one that states, “Only creepy Persian and Armenian men wearing gold chains and black shirts come here”. Ha. As if we needed to differentiate Middle Eastern/Near Asian men from the gold chains. We might as well call them hairy and sufficiently coated in cologne. Without this stuff, they would be naked. Well, at least their mounds of hair would be more visible. Give them some love; we know we all secretly (or not so secretly) enjoy it.
The service- gee. I kind of forgot about it, because it was fine, what you would expect at a sketchy hookah bar in Glendale. I really wanted to ask the guy carrying the coals how often he burns himself. Maybe he likes it. He could be in a Hookah circus. Toward the end of the night, we switched it up with a melon-grape flavor that was tasty. Of course, nothing is as tasty as the first few hits. This was close. Not bad pricing either. First Hookah was $12, refill $5. Hey, some Hookah places time you and charge you no matter how much or little you smoke. And nothing sucks more than trying to hurry and smoke. It actually defeats the purpose wholeheartedly. Overall, I would journey back to this place. Maybe next time we can brave sitting outside if it’s not -40 degrees (and by that I mean below 60- welcome to Southern California).
Ratings (out of 10):
Flavor Selection: 8
Ambiance: 7
Food: 9 (Ikra: 157!)
Music: 7 (not because it wasn’t good, because it was too damn loud!)
Hookah Me Up (overall appeal): 7
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