Shisha lounge: Plans unveiled for first venue in Fife to share flavoured tobacco

Shisha bars or dens, also known as hookah lounges, are largely confined to cities in the UK and typically sees patrons share flavoured tobacco from a communal hookah pipe or from one placed at each table or a bar.

Now it seems that Kirkcaldy may well be about to get in on the act thanks to a planning application submitted by local entrepreneur Sohaib Mujeeb relating to the former Happy Days Chinese restaurant in St Clair Street.

The proposals tabled would bring the shop unit back into operation as a restaurant serving meals and snacks to the public while also creating an external courtyard area for shisha smoking.

Michael Roy, from Roy Surveyors, said the plan would bring the ground floor unit of a prominent 19th Century C-listed building back into use - and would no doubt attract people from across Fife and beyond.

“The proposals have been carefully designed to protect the character and interest of the listed building, create a new vibrant business and preserve residential amenity in the surrounding area,” he added.

“The formation of the shisha courtyard is a key feature of the proposal which would attract visitors and customers from throughout Fife and is therefore essential for the proposed use.

“The proposed shisha courtyard to be formed to the rear would be obscured from public views and is of a relatively small scale.

“As such, it is considered that this would have no adverse effect upon the setting of this listed building but rather would allow for the re-use of what is at present an overgrown, neglected area of hardstanding.”

Shisha usually contains tobacco which is sometimes mixed with fruit or molasses sugar, with popular flavours including apple, strawberry, mint and cola.

Wood, coal or charcoal is burned in the shisha pipe to heat the tobacco and create the smoke, and flexible tubes are hooked up to the pipe.

Shisha smoking produces second-hand smoke so is covered by Scotland’s smoke-free law which doesn’t allow smoking in enclosed public spaces.

It is permitted in courtyard areas.

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