HOOKAHS ON WEST FRONT
Yo, check it out: hookahs! And are those slippers? (Click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
No, you did not misread that headline, or imagine what you saw as you passed 16 West Front Street in Red Bank recently.
Those were hookahs in the window and lining the shop’s walls.
Joining a gym, an upscale clothing store, a puppy boutique and a modish restaurant/night club along the increasingly trendy West Front strip last month, the owners of Tobacco Paradise hope not only to buck the anti-smoking tide, but to do it with exotic devices associated with lazy afternoons in Middle Eastern cafés and bazaars not to mention dorm rooms the world over.
“There’s nothing in Red Bank like this,” said Leo Santani, one of the owners. “It’s really a unique type of store.”