Stephano's, also known as Daily Chicken Gyros, used to be a small, hole-in-the-wall Mediterranean restaurant until a $200,000 expansion this summer added enough room to provide a larger seating area as a new hookah lounge.
Now, only four months after reopening the new 3,500-square-foot lounge and restaurant, Koss and his staff are trying to plan for the future, but haven't heard anything from either state or local officials on how their business will be affected by Question 5.
"We haven't been contacted by anyone," Koss says. "Nothing's come in the mail or anything."
In fact, of all the local area hookah lounges contacted for this story, none has had any guidance about what to do come December 8.
Lorne Malkiewich, director of legal counsel for the Nevada Legislative Bureau, says it will be the responsibility of county officials to implement the ban.
"The statutes are to be enforced by local sheriffs, police and health authorities," Malkiewich says. "The law would be enforced in the same manner ... that the current prohibitions are," which means tickets, fines and the possibility of jail time.
And the possibility of overturning it is not imminent: Any exemptions or legal battles to change or redefine the ban can't be heard until the 2009 session, Malkiewich says, because of provisions in the state constitution.
"Unless a special session is initiated ... the [smoking ban] cannot be touched by the Legislature until '09," Malkiewich says. "And we don't even know if the Legislature wants to even touch this."
But uncertainty among business owners is causing some, like the those at the recently opened Almaza hookah lounge and restaurant off of Maryland Parkway and Eastern Avenue, to adopt a "wait and see" approach.
"You'd think that since the law is directed to us, we'd expect some letter telling us about the law," says Almaza general manager Maher Fakih. "We don't know how the law will affect us."
But Fakih isn't waiting. He's changing his business hours and prepping the 3,400-square-foot space for a full conversion from a restaurant and hookah lounge to a Middle Eastern nightclub serving drinks, hookah and authentic Middle Eastern music. "A lot of people like us because we serve authentic home-style Lebanese food," Fakih says. "But if we have to close down our kitchen, we will ... we don't want to, but we will."
The closure of Almaza's kitchen will put an estimated four people out of work. But, he says, the hookah and bar outsell the food on a nightly basis.
"To include the food with the hookah is a part of our success and our culture," Fakih says. "But we also have our nightlife, and when it comes down to the law of no hookahs with food, we'll have to look [to] either restricted smoking hours or cutting the kitchen completely. ... The hookah outsells the food ... but we'd hate to get rid of the kitchen."
Raouf has already figured out a way to satisfy the hungry hookah smokers: He's going herbal.
By switching from tobacco to a mixture of herbal hookah made with molasses and fruit flavors, Raouf hopes that he will be able to preserve the lounge environment that he has made successful.
"According to [the law], it talks about tobacco, but not smoke," Raouf says. "Hookah was never meant for nicotine; it's a social thing [and] .... we will preserve that atmosphere."
Paymon's lounges, noted for their sultry, sexy environments—red drapes and sofa seating—would then be able to get around the law, and continue to preserve what Raouf calls an important cultural event.
"[Smoking] hookah is more of a cultural thing than a tobacco thing," Raouf says. "It's not about the tobacco; it's about the service and atmosphere."
While questions are up in the air for the future of many of the Valley's hookah lounges, Red Hookah Lounge and Internet Café at Sahara Avenue and Fort Apache Road stands to possibly increase its business when the ban goes into effect, because its lounge serves neither food nor alcohol.
The three-month-old lounge operates under a tobacco retailers license, and is supported primarily by younger customers—18-to-20-year-olds who are not old enough to drink.
"We didn't want to serve alcohol because it would cut out a part of our demographic," says Cottrell Dawson, owner of Red. "Because of this we probably do about 10 times the hookah service of most bars in Vegas."
Dawson, who opened his lounge after starting a sort of rolling hookah lounge party crew called Red Entertainment three years ago, has positioned his business for massive expansions to multiple locations, even in the face of the upcoming law. "We don't serve alcohol or food, but the place is always in the black," Dawson says. "Our second location will be open by Christmas."
Dawson says his business thrives right now because it's targeted to a demographic that wants to smoke hookah and have the same experiences as Paymon's, but is not of age to be hanging around in a place that serves alcohol.
But Dawson is not completely sure if the law will bring more bodies in the door, as he thinks 21-to-30-somethings go to the lounges primarily for alcohol.
"We don't know if our business will grow," Dawson says. "Logically it would, but we have a lot of 20-to-30-somethings who walk in and say, ‘You don't have a bar?' and never come back."
In the end, when the smoke goes out at area bars, Dawson concedes that he won't be happy if he becomes the only game in town.
"Competition is healthy," he says.