Sunday 1 July 2007

Sudden outbreak of gardening by Lebanese and Turkish hookah cafes

The shops in Turnpike Lane in North London have once again been re-arranging themselves. At the western end, more and more properties are being taken over by sari shops, but at the eastern extremity, the Lebanese cafe has marched across Burgheigh Road and moved three doors down, with the space left being taken over by the Beirut Gate Lebanese food shop, which has the same owner as the Lebanese cafe.
The reason for all these movements became clear on Sunday. The new premises has a GARDEN, which means that under new smoke-free regulations, the cafe's 40+ flavour hookah (waterpipe, aka nargileh, shisha pipe) operation can stay in business. Murat at the Mirage Cafe, who only has half a dozen flavours in hish nargileh operation, has also laid out a garden round the back of his internet cafe.
It remains to be seen what will happen at the Lebanese cafes on West London's Queensway, where some of the nargileh-using public are so serious about their habit that they BRING THEIR OWN nargilehs.

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