Grub Street spots a new eatery going into a former dry cleaners on Mission between 19th and 20th called Arabian Nights. The owners, Ahmad Karajah and Mahmoud Odeh, also own Farah Smoke Shop next door (2345 Mission), and the clerk there tells us that the restaurant will feature Middle Eastern food, beer and wine, and eventually, maybe, a hookah lounge.
The place is still in the plywood stage and won’t likely be open until summer. But once it opens, at least hookah-wise, it will join OZ Smoking Lounge on 22nd and Morac Restaurant and Lounge as the Inner Mission’s hookah-friendly establishments.
We’ve got to wonder how so many hookah places are going to survive with the city’s new, stricter anti-smoking laws. They’re clearly not all owner-operated with no upstairs tenants — which would be the only way to keep them legal at this point.
