Make-It-Yourself Hookah Bar

My friend, Matt, and I were having a discussion and the subject of hookah came up. He smokes a pipe from time to time and is a connoisseur of fine cigars, but had never tried smoking from a hookah. I love hookah, but haven't had an opportunity to partake since leaving Louisville 2 years ago. One of my favorite places to hang out in the Ville is Cafe 360 on Bardstown Road. I'd go with a girlfriend and we'd get a table on the sidewalk, order a hookah and a bottle of wine, and watch the world walk by. The food was pretty good at Cafe 360 as well. A great way to spend an afternoon as far as I'm concerned!
When Matt expressed an interest in trying it out, we made plans to go to Key West on his day off and hit the only hookah bar in the Keys, The Kooler. We made all of our other stops first...Baby's Coffee, GFS, Ben Franklin, Oppenheimer Eye Clinic [to pick Capt. Jack's glasses up for him], Captain Tony's, and the sponge market...saving the best part for last. We took the walk up Duvall, but before turning on Southard to our final destination, we stopped in a little shop on the corner with hookahs in the window. The proprietor of that store then informed us that the hookah bar had closed down about 2 weeks prior to our little field trip. What a bummer!
Making the best of the situation, we decided to go ahead and buy a small hookah and couple of varieties of shisha, tobacco mixed with honey and other flavors. We'd just have to wait and try it on Matt's back deck when we returned to Marathon.
On the way back to the car, Matt mentioned needing to find a bathroom before the long drive home. Captain Tony's was just a couple doors down so we decided to just pop in there again. While I was waiting, I told the bartender how our plans to go to the hookah bar had been ruined by it's closure and was it possible for us to set our newly purchased hookah up right there in the bar. He replied that as long as it was legal, he didn't care what we smoked.
So we did!
We ordered another drink, gathered the supplies we needed [water, aluminum foil, and Brian Paul's lighter], and fired up the hookah.
Part of the fun of going out to a hookah bar is being out...people watching, live music, and a bartender add to the overall experience. We had a couple of people watching what we were doing with curious glances and one guy even sat down with us and had a puff or 2, but for the most part, no one paid us any attention as we relaxed and smoked in our Make-It-Yourself Hookah Bar.