The Wall Street Journal today ran a great front-page piece on the hookah bars in Queens, which are coming under pressure (who are the “neighbors” that are complaining???) since they illegally permit smoking. The hookah bars do not qualify for the so-called “cigar-bar” exemption from the city smoking law, because they don’t serve alcohol to their largely Muslim clientele. Meanwhile, the Carnegie Club, or swanky hipster hookah bars in the East Village, have no problem.
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PS — new snow icon! But it’s now raining instead of snowing.