Commentary on hookahs, smoke rings, and The Dream

After my beloved Casbah Rouge closed down, I haven’t hit up many hookah bars. Mainly due to the price, lack of quality, and the convenience of having a HoboHookah (who wants to go to a sub-par shisha bar, pay $20/head, when you can pack your own, go to a cool beer garden and chill like a vill there?)

Last weekend, though, I decided to try something new. I was going to try a hookah bar that I have heard a ton about, but have for what ever reason, not made the stop. That hookah bar, was Le Souk, in the lower Alphabet City on the Manhattan Isle.

Walked in, a bit early on Saturday night, and was escorted from the main dinning area to the bar area. The decor in Le Souk is nice, but if you have seen a chi-chi hookah lounge in Manhattan before, they all kind of look the same: Dark lights, exposed plaster walls, and then various pillows, short plush stools and drapes that adorn the perimeter.

After I sat down, I signaled to a waiter and I simply said: “Corona and a shisha”. Now, I was expecting a Corona to arrive along with a little food/shisha menu that I could leisurely peruse. Instead, a shisha got dropped off, along with my beer. “Hmm, was this some kind of mistake, how could they know I wanted Sweet Melon or Raspberry or Mango?” As it turns out, the shisha was Double Apple, not a bad Double Apple, but I also wasn’t really gunning for a classic. I wanted something different; something that I hadn’t already smoked my lungs black with when I was in Egypt.

After a little bit of investigation, it appears that Double Apple is it for Le Souk; as the old adage goes: You can have any flavor, as long as its Double Apple. According to the in house shisha master, other flavors contaminate the “instruments”, so in his pipes he just picks a flavor and sticks with it. He’s right about the contamination fear, but for fucks sake, buy cleanable gear. All in all, pretty ridiculous, especially for the $20/head they charge for the hookah.

The gear they had was nice, top of the line heavy brass hookahs with thick, heavy glass vases. I would say that the bowl looked pretty small, but it did smoke fine for about an hour. The hoses were also not washable, which may have been the part that the “Shisha Master” was having trouble cleaning. Honestly, washable hoses are so prevalent, that this should not be a suitable reason for any hookah bar to carry a single, solitary flavor.

Apparently, there is a lot of entertainment that goes down at Le Souk: Belly dancers, live music, etc. As far as a hookah bars go, its probably one of the best, most well rounded in Manhattan; where hookah smokers and not can sit back and enjoy quality food, entertainment and a “Middle Eastern” vibe and mutually enjoy the experience. There is also a full bar, with typical Manhattan prices ($6/beer, $7-8 for a cocktail), which comes in handy for washing down the taste of the strict anise flavored hookah.

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend Le Souk to anybody. Service wasn’t bad, the atmosphere was good, but if I’m going to recommend or take people to a hookah bar, they better have a full compliment of flavors, and that’s that. This is America, with NY/American prices, after all, and not a street café in Cairo.

Review Summary: Le Souk (link)

Type: Hookah Bar

Venue: 6/10

Selection: 8/10

Hookah Selection: 0/10

Pioneer Factor: 5/10

Hobo Friendly? N/A

Overall: 5/10