The great hookah hook-up
Jared Evans shares a bowl with friends at The Sultan Cafe - Thursday, May 19, 2005

I'm smoking a grape-flavored hookah mix next to my new pals Abrahim Amhaz (digging double-apple) and Mikel Proudlock (puffing a fruit combination) on a recent drizzly afternoon.

The driver of a yellow pickup zipping by The Sultan Cafe (1500 N.W. 18th Ave., Suite 101; 503-227-6466) windows does a double-take, almost veering off Northwest Raleigh, when he spies us. Cafe owner Mike Makboul slaps the counter, and the collection of hookah smokers inside, holding the snake-like arms from our hookah pipes, laughs.

Along with a spicy red-pepper hummus plate, a succulent pepperoni, salami and provolone panini and strong Turkish coffee drinks, Makboul has been offering hookah smoking after 3 p.m. for more than a year. He's built up a diverse and loyal clientele at this industrial North Portland outpost for centuries-old Middle Eastern tradition.

For seven bucks you can rent a pipe, choose one of 20 flavors (ranging from coconut to the popular double-apple) and chill. What differentiates the new hookah culture from the past is that the flavors are a bit less authentic -- far less tobacco, more sweetness -- so getting hooked on hookah smoking is chemically less likely. What bridges time and distance between Portland's and Mideastern hookah culture is the social quality of sharing the pipe.

"It's for relaxing; usually people smoke together, after work or after dinner," Amhaz says. From Lebanon, Amhaz works for a Portland mortgage firm and stops by the Sultan on his way home. "It goes great with coffee, and also is very good for digestion."

While Makboul acknowledges that hookah's current appeal may be due to the outlaw look of its paraphernalia, he and Amhaz both appreciate the pipe's ability to bridge worlds.

"It's bringing people together," Amhaz says, "and brings understanding of cultures. There's no politics; here, it's just hookah."

"It's becoming a tool of communication," Makboul adds.

And it's working for Proudlock: a private first class in the Washington Army National Guard, Proudlock saw hookahs all around during his time in Iraq, but "didn't have time" to indulge, he says. Now back home, in the Northwest, he decided to try it out. After pronouncing his tropical fruit concoction "pure flavor with no bite!" he looks at the ornate pipe on his table and makes an aesthetic argument, too.

"And hookahs are just so much more stylin' than a bong!"