Anyone who wants to experience a little slice of foreign culture has a new opportunity in town.
Four months ago, Plant City residents who wanted to smoke from a hookah had to travel to Brandon or Lakeland. Fadi and Hanadi Abed, who also own Lakeland’s Hookah King, have since changed that by opening Hookah King II in the Strawberry Plaza.
“We had a choice between Plant City, Brandon and Valrico,” Fadi Abed said. “We didn’t see a hangout place for 18- to 21-year-olds in Plant City, so we came here.”
Abed said the 18- to 20-year-old crowd is attractive because they are old enough to smoke tobacco but not old enough to go to the bar. Hookah King II does not serve alcohol, and one of Abed’s goals is for the lounge to be a popular place for that crowd to socialize.
The lounge has 20 hookahs available for groups to use. The cost to smoke is $10 to $12 per hookah for two people, and extras can be added at $3 per person. There are also pipes, coals and tobacco for sale.
Abed has three televisions hanging on the walls, which are usually tuned in to sports: basketball, soccer, football or whatever customers want to watch. One TV, in the back of the lounge, is connected to an Xbox 360, and there’s a two-person couch right in front of it.
There are 40 standalone flavors of tobacco to choose from, and customers can mix two or three of them together. There are also some unique, pre-made blends available to smoke, such as the mango-dominated “Yachtmaster” and the raspberry-grape fusion of “Purple Hays.” Abed also offers to place the tobacco in an apple slice, altering the flavor even more.
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
DETAILS
Hookah King II
ADDRESS: 1854 James L. Redman Parkway, Plant City
HOURS: 3 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily
PHONE: (813) 754-7600
WHAT IS A HOOKAH?
A hookah is a tall water pipe used to smoke tobacco, and its origins can be traced back to ancient Indian and Persian civilizations.
These aren’t made for smoking regular tobacco, however. Everything that goes into the head has a distinct flavor, from something as ordinary as strawberry to a mashup of two or three different flavors. One pipe can serve at least two people at a time for a couple of hours.