The word on Twitter is correct:  We have a new toll free 1-800 number, 1-877-420-8770, where more than likely Trent, Dave or Mike will be there to answer your HoboNargile, as well as any other, questions.  Our store@hobohookah.com is still the best way to resolve any shipping or store inquiries, but we know its sometimes just nice to talk to the guys running the show.

To the left is just a friendly reminder that your HoboNargile will work with two hoses.  Its definitely the best new feature on the HoboNargile over the HoboHookah.  Nothing says party like dual hoses coming at you.

Its internet week in New York City, which means we’ll be out and about spreading the hookah word and building our hookah revolution.  If you are in town, shoot out a tweet and we’ll meet up.

Also, in the news, we are getting V2.0 of our ultra top secret new product to the office this week.  We’ll have more news once we know when to expect them on the store.  Definitely sign up on the email list for the second we have details.  There will be a sweet deal going out to the list when we launch the product as well.  Bonus!

And we are on point with another Hookah Happy Hour: Check out our video review of Tangiers Green Tea hookah tobacco.

Thanks to Thrillist again for the shout out!

This weekend we hit one of our favorite outdoors spots with the HoboNargile: Stone Street in downtown Manhattan.

Stone Street features many great venues for food and outdoor merriment including Ulysses (great bar with good seafood), Adrienne’s Pizza Bar (great wood-oven Italian food), and The Creperie (Crepes on Williams St).

The great thing about Stone Street in the summer is the block party like feel of dozens of picnic tables outdoors in one of the most scenic areas in Manhattan.  There is even Wifi to boot, for those who want to rock out a little work in the great outdoors.

We got there around 2pm on a beautiful Saturday and set up our hookah on an old school nalgene bottle.  Stone Street is smoking pipe friendly and is a great pairing with the food and drink options on the street.  Its a good idea to get there early, even on those warm nights, Stone Street packs up the tables after 11pm.

Definitely worth checking out next time you are in the neighborhood.  With that weekend update, no week would be complete with out a Hobocans Happy Hour.  Check out that too for our review of Tangiers Watermelon.

Thanks Thrillist! The HoboNargile works on any bottle and can go anywhere you go.  Big shout out to Spook Nukem, Sara B for hooking us up with Kevin and Joe at Thrillist in NY and DC.

Check out the HoboNargile here.

UPDATE: We’re also on Thrillist Washington DC’s “Best of the Best” this month (hoping this link doesn’t expire).

It was another long weekend in New York, with loads of visitors abound.  Long time HoboHookah advocate from the Philippines, Grace, was in town and a whole crew of people from Chicago, DC, Boston and even the JC came to town to live party glory.

You all might remember Grace from Mike’s travels through Asia.  She was kind enough to show the man around Il Ponticello and we had to re-up with some hookah and beverages state side.

Big shout out to Kate’s Bar in the Lower East Side for saving the Saturday night and to Anchor for supplying loads of ladies on Friday night.  Of course, we Madison alums were at Madriver in the Upper East to see the Badgers throw away the game vis a vis interceptions.  Wham dog.

We have another Hobocans Happy Hour hookah tobacco flavor review happening over at the Hobocans blog.  This time we tackle a few Tangiers f-Line flavors: Cocoa and Orange Soda.

As the summer takes a turn toward Fall, we took one last trip to the Gardens of Queens, namely the beer gardens thereof.  Instead of the much loved Bohemian Beer Hall, we tried the new garden on the street, Studio Square.

As can be expected in Queens, New York: They loved the HoboHookah.  We transported that baby in its soccer ball hookah bag and thrust it upon a narrow-mouth Nalgene.  The only looks we got came with a firm, approving nod.

With hookah bars in New York shutting down left and right or jacking shisha bowl prices through the roof its nice to know there are some public spaces that like the smell of flavored tobacco in the open air.  We definitely recommend a visit and make sure to bring your hookah to meet some new people.

We have another Hobocans Happy Hour on tap.  This time a tired, surly Trent and Mike take on a difficult bowl of Nakhla and phunnel.  Check it out so that you don’t make the same mistake we did.

Put it up!  Got some nice emails from Afghanistan and Antarctica this week, we’ll be doing some write ups on those Hobos.  If you are a Hero in some crazy location in the world, drop us a line with some pics and your story.

Hookah bars in NYC are almost as commonplace and generic as the loyal subway rats, and finding a solid, healthy one is just as rare. But with every code, comes a crack, so let’s walk you through the New York City hookah cafe quandary…

First off, what you can count on: nearly every cafe has expensive drinks, tacky belly dancers, and a lethargic approach to coal renewal. This is not where they differentiate, so if you dig on those you have a wide selection. Enjoy.

But There’s More…

We know that true HoboHeroes are social creatures, so if you’re still chomping at the bit to smoke a pricey shisha, then here’s how to pick a good hookah bar.

1. Shisha Selection
Of highest importance is, of course, the shisha. Go for a place with quality and selection. Several hookah bars in New York City, such as Cozy Cafe (http://www.cozycafenyc.com/ – careful, website is kinda loud), have as many as 40 shisha options to choose from. Don’t skimp, and pick something delicious (link to shisha reviews).

2. Cafe Atmosphere – NYC’s Strength
The next, and possibly most overlooked aspect of the hookah bar experience is the atmosphere. Whether you prefer a specific country’s vibe, or “just want Arab,” you can get it. Energy levels range from authentically low to rocket-fueled high, so don’t worry, you can find something for your 1st-time Type-A buddy. He’ll dig it.

3. Hookah Pro Tip
And last but not least, if you can’t find a good quality hookah bar, then find a good bar and just bring your HoboHookah with you. We have found several bars in NYC that are Hobo-friendly. Why settle for something else when you already have the best?

5 NYC Hookah Bars to Get You Started

Le Souk Hookah Bar

47 Avenue B New York, NY
www.lesoukny.com

Part restaurant, part club, Le Souk is by far the most unique hookah bar experience. A perfect fusion between the Middle East and the Modern West, it provides a pleasant ambiance for an intimate dinner of phenomenal Middle Eastern food. Then, step through the adjacent doorway to find yourself teleported into a wild world of rockin’ beats.  World famous DJs mix modern American and European music with underlying tones of Middle Eastern rhythms.  And, if you’re really lucky, you might find yourself on the guest list for Le Souk’s exclusive VIP parties on Monday and Tuesday nights.

Sahara East Hookah Cafe

184 1st Ave, New York

One of the more famous hookah bars in New York City due to its convenient location in the hipster section of the East Village, Sahara East, unfortunately, does not live up to its hype.  True New Yorkers avoid it due to its reputation of poor service, questionable food, and mediocre hookah.  The two things that do push its review over to the neutral tic on the scale are its large, decorative tent interior and its belly dancer performances.  If your group for the evening is just looking for a fun time, regardless of food and shisha, this serves as an easily accessible and highly entertaining spot.

Moomia Hookah Lounge

157 Lafayette NY, NY
http://www.moomiany.com/

Moomia Lounge is a little known hideaway located in lower-SoHo.  With two fantastic booze bars (one on each floor) and spacious dance floors, this is the perfect place to reserve for an event or party.  It has comfy couches lining the walls, where hookah is served for an intimate smoke and a rest from dancing to the awesome music.  For a fun, energetic atmosphere, this bar gets two thumbs up.

Cozy Cafe

43 E1st St NY, NY
http://www.cozycafenyc.com/

With a name that enticing, who could say no?  And, indeed, Cozy Cafe delivers on its title!  A favorite amongst New Yorkers and visitors alike, this bar sends out delightful vibes upon entrance.  A little something for everyone, it offers over 40 shisha flavors, belly dancers on certain nights of the week, and both a lounge and a restaurant area.  Its roomy interior is a great pick for hosting your big night.

Cafe Ricco

Mystery Location for the true connoisseur!

Cafe Ricco holds a rare quality that is lacking from most bars in New York City – gracious, welcoming hosts. Not only do they treat their customers like family, but they are some of the few owners that are generous with their coal refills which, as any HoboHero knows, is really clutch. To add icing to the cake, this bar’s unique decor of a hole-in-the-wall vine filled with nice bricker brack sets a really fantastic mood. For a place where the liquor flows well and the smiles are aplenty, go to Cafe Ricco.

So there you have it, Heroes. Like we said before… Be sure to shoot a smoke signal at mail@hobocans.com if you find any outstanding hookah bars in New York City or your neck of the glorious woods.

What’s kicking off summer vacation without a little concert road trip? So we rented a car in Manhattan, sparked up the HoboHookah, and road tripped it up to Hartford, CT to see a little band known as Dave Mathews.

Now, living on the East Coast has sort of redefined my idea of a road trip: What use to be a several hundred mile weekend jaunt across multiple state lines, is now a day trip up to some other metropolitan area.

But the spirit is all there: Hartford happens to have a gem of a outdoor venue known in their Dodge Music Center, formerly known as the Meadows, or Meadows Music Center. Its like our old haunt in Wisconsin, The Alpine Valley Music Theatre: Big parking lots where revelers show up in the morning, grill out and get hammed, close seats that are actual seats, under a rain-resistant awning and a big frickin’ hill where the proles stake their claim and jam out with a 24oz Miller in their grip.

Having been to concerts at Madison Square Garden, where other top shelf names like Dave play, the Music Center was a welcome change of pace. No crammed in, city feel. Green grass, which is great rain or shine. A real venue that makes you think: Damn, this is the way to see this band perform.

And perform they did: Dave has been coming around the Music Center for some time, with the Music Center being one of the staple venues on his tour. This time they had the sick Tex-Mex guitarist Alejandro Escovedo, who jammed out along with the rest of the band in between Dave’s big hits. Dave knows how to please a crowd and kept his old stuff coming while playing the top hits of his new album. The two encores included the cover “Thank You for Letting me Be Myself” by Sly And The Family Stone, which was a great way to finish the set.

Overall: This is a great venue to have in your pocket on the East Coast. The highlight being plenty of old fashioned parking lot pre-gaming before the show, which really makes the concert an event and something that you just can’t do on 7th in front of MSG. The one downside is the draconian security: If you are bringing anything more than a 1-gallon ziplock of food into the venue, you will get greeted by the full body and bag search. While the parking lots are no doubt ripe for some hookah smoking, flip cupping and meat grilling, with friendly police shooting the thumbs up, none of that is welcome behind the gates.

Review Summary: Dodge Music Center in Hartford, CT (link)

Act Witnessed: Dave Mathews Band

Type: Outdoor amphitheater with grass and traditional seating

Tips: Show up well before the show with friends, beer and a hookah. Park and party in one of the many parking lots.

Venue: 9/10

Pioneer Factor: 8/10

Hobo Friendly? No inside, yes in the pre-game parking lots

Overall: 7/10

10) Bagels, Pizza, Cart Meat and Hotdogs
Throw a mortgage on your health and dive into the local cuisine. Bagels and pizza in NY are definitely below market prices. I’d wager that there isn’t a consistently cheaper place to get bagels or pizza in the US. Both go for about $1.50 a pop, you can’t even get french fries at McDonalds for that in the city. Switch it up with a nice kabob or hotdog from one of the street vendors, almost an equally great deal. Watch out for the kabobs though, I stopped eating them after a friend found a free razor blade in his lamb meat. Caveat emptor, mi amigo.

9) Living la Vida NJ
Any place with this bad of a rap has to be cheap! If you are looking for a place to crash, check out Jersey City on Craigslist and sublet someone’s apartment for awhile. Usually you can get a week’s stay for the price of a couple nights in the city. And, if you really want to have memorable time in the NY Metro Area, tuck your wallet into your shoe and stay in Newark for about half the price of NY. Make sure you are near a PATH train ($1.50/trip): About 20min to the city from the JC or 30min from Newark. NJ: Its not that bad!

8) Eventme.com
What are you new here? Eventme.com lets you pick a city, pick a few areas of interest, and it’ll shoot you whatever is going on. In NY, pay attention to the art gallery openings: Bring that new hottie there to impress her with your cultural aires and enjoy free cheese and wine. No cheaper date than free!

7) $20 Beer and Wings Deal (College Football Saturdays)
Like football? No? Like chicken wings and Bud Light? Yes? $20 dollars a pop, includes 3 pitchers/person, UNLIMITED atomic wings, and watching grown Michigan Alums weep softly (from 1-6pm). It is just about the cheapest and most entertaining lunch and day drink in NYC. Head to Down the Hatch and crank your day off up a notch.

6) Half Price Tickets and Standing Room Only
If you have been to NYC and don’t know about the TKTS booths for Broadway shows, than, you sir, need to head down to number 1 immediately. So this isn’t much of a secret, but we got a cultural quota to live up to. Something that is a bit below the radar are the deals at Broadway ticket booths. Get a list of your favorite shows, head to their ticket booths and ask for obstructed view or standing room seats. You may want to barrow your brother’s college ID for some of the shows. Tickets at TKTS are half off ($30-$50). Tickets at the booths can be as low as $20 for standing room (Chicago for instance) or if you got that college ID laying around.

5) Movie + pizza + beverage = A Good Night Out
Remember when movie theatres wouldn’t let you bring shit into the theatre so you’d have to buy $6 bags of popcorn and $4 cokes? Well not in NYC. The AMC Theatre up near Times Square lets you bring just about anything in there. Pick up a slice of pizza or some Chinese take out, stop buy the local Bodega for some beverages, and just roll into the theatre like you own the place. They have an official policy that anyone can bring food or drink (no alcohol though, of course) into the theatres. Hey, $14 for a movie, $2 for pizza, and $10 on a few Cokes isn’t too bad for an evening in NYC.

4) I Love New York T-Shirts
Do you love New York? Are you a little short on clean clothes? Then don’t just walk by the street vendors up near Times Square, pick yourself up a few knockoff t-shirts, usually about $2/pop. Haggle your ass off , buy in bulk and when you are done wearing them, they make great souvenirs for friends and family back home, you cheap bastard. Alternatively, if you got a job interview or if you plan on hitting Jay-Z’s club, stop by Filene’s Basement on 19th St and 6th Ave or Century 21 on Church St (in front of WTC) to pick up some discount pants and a suit coat to go with your I <3 NY duds. Got to get that Euro Trash look reeeeal strong.

3) Chinatown Buses
Looking to get out of the city? Take the Orange B/D subway to the Grand St stop, walk up the stairs and feel like you are face first in a fish market: Welcome to Chinatown. The Chinatown buses, all found on Canal St or East Broadway, offers tickets to Boston for $15 and DC for $20. Don’t bother buying online, just show up, throw down a couple of bills and hop on. Buses leave pretty much every hour, great for those ad hoc trips for shits. Check out Chinatown-bus.com for rates and locations.

2) Chinatown Food
While your down waiting for your bus, roll into one of the to-go eateries on Canal or Grand. You can get a nice order of shrimp lo-mien for about $4. Its more grease for the gullet, but if you are on a budget, its the way to go. Also, pick up a nice knock off watch or bag for that special person in your life: they’ll never know…

1) The Patriot Saloon
“Six Dollar Pitchers!” exclaimed one patron at our last visit. This place is wild as it is cheap. Straight from the Midwest, transplanted on Chambers and Church blocks away from the heart of the Financial District: Country music, PBR, pool and lingerie night. Its all here. Even their good beer (Harp or Guinness) goes for about $10 a pitcher. Also, get there before midnight and feed on some dollar hamburgers and fries for fuel. You’ll need it.

And that’s how you do it. Make sure to get your cholestrol checked after you leave.