Mangos, on Warren Ave., is a state classified legal hookah bar.

DEARBORN – The Arab American News has obtained a list of hookah businesses in Dearborn and Dearborn Heights which have received an exemption from the state to allow patrons to consume food in their facilities, under strict guidelines. 

Those businesses include Cigaro Lounge, Famous Hamburger, Mango’s Café, Midnight Café and Sky Café in Dearborn and The Lava Lounge in Dearborn Heights. The full list can be viewed in the inset below.

More than 300 establishments were given exemptions state-wide. The state no longer hands out those exemptions and the only way to obtain one would be to buy it off of an existing owner.

In total, 15 businesses in Dearborn have received the exemption. The businesses that were given exemptions complied with the state’s demands, remodeling their establishments to allocate separate sections and entrances for food and hookah smoking. 

What is more noteworthy, however, is that there are more hookah lounges operating in the city without the exemption. In recent years, business owners had caught wind of loopholes in the laws and began opening up hookah lounges where food is also being served, despite a smoke-free air law passed in 2010 which outlawed smoking at restaurants and public places.

Last month, the city council, in agreement with Mayor Jack O’Reilly, passed a six month moratorium in an attempt to regulate the influx of illegal hookah lounges that have been opening up sporadically around town over the last several years.

O’Reilly and several council members expressed a number of concerns regarding the hookah lounges, including a lack of enforcement on both the state and county level.  

However, Councilman Mike Sareini opposes the ban on establishing new hookah lounges. He told The Arab American News that Dearborn is attempting to tackle this issue from the wrong angle. He said that laws are already in place and that the city should step up communication measures with the county and state and pressure them to enforce the laws correctly.

“The law states specifically that if a complaint is written to the health department, then it must be investigated within five days,” Sareini said. “My point is we are doing it backwards. We first need to call the state and have them investigate those doing it illegally.”

Sareini questions both the state law and the county’s enforcement, adding that the law appears to have no bite. 

“If you read the law, you will see that it’s hard to get enforced,” he added. “This law has no teeth. It says any written complaint must be investigated by the health department. I would ask them if they have gotten any complaints about tobacco facilities operating illegally and did they investigate it within five days?”

According to Wayne County Environmental Health Director Carol Austerberry, the department routinely receives complaints from residents and consumers regarding businesses that are breaking the smoke-free air law, including those in Dearborn.

She said when a business is found breaking the law, it is issued an immediate $100 fine. If the county receives a second complaint regarding the same business, that business then receives a $500 fine.

“We have responded to close to 1,000 complaints,” Austerberry said. “We investigate every complaint we receive. Whether it’s smoking at a bar, restaurant or a public place.” 

Sareini, however, questions how many inspections the county has done, since restaurants continue to serve hookah on a daily basis and none of them have been shut down in Dearborn. 

Austerberry pointed out that many of the businesses given an exemption are licensed as “tobacco specialty retail stores” and not as restaurants and are allowed to have food under specific guidelines mandated by the state. 

Under those laws, implemented by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the owner of a “tobacco specialty retail store” may allow customers to bring in pre-packaged or single-service style to-go food into the business. Patrons are allowed to bring in food that was purchased at another licensed food establishment that has a different address than the tobacco specialty retail store.

This means that a business can not be both a “tobacco specialty retail store” and a licensed food establishment. 

Famous Hamburger is a good example of a business that follows the state’s guidelines accordingly. Hookah is kept out of the restaurant, where food is cooked and served. Customers who are there to consume hookah are seated in an entirely different section of the building with two entrance and exit points. That section of the venue also has a different address than the section where food is served. If a customer wants to bring food into the hookah section, they can only do so through carry out. 

O’Reilly told The Arab American News that the main reason behind the moratorium is to  give equal footing to those business owners who complied with the laws and had spent thousands of dollars remodeling their venues to be up to par with state codes. He estimates that there are an additional 15-20 hookah lounges in the city that do not have an exemption, but have a food license and are serving hookah in those facilities, regardless.

“We have more non-licensed facilities in Dearborn than we do licensed ones,” O’Reilly said. “These unlicensed ones have developed and they are not being regulated under the state law. The people who obtained a license are being cheated in a way, because there are people opening up businesses and getting away with it. The ones who invested money into a license have to abide by certain rules, while the ones who don’t have a license are free to do whatever they want. It just makes no sense.” 

O’Reilly clarified that the city has no intention of creating its own ordinance on enforcing the laws; and instead is looking to meet with state and county officials in the next six months to set up a consistent checks and balances system that would classify all of the city’s hookah lounges in one class.

“The city has no part in enforcing or managing this,” he said. “The state law trumps us. We now have two markets operating, the licensed and unlicensed. I always hate it when somebody plays by the rules and gets hurt. The people who do it right should be rewarded, not punished.”

O’Reilly also criticized the state’s hookah law, stating that he doesn’t see the purpose in the state’s reasoning to divide food from hookah. He plans on making suggestions to law makers about modifying that portion of the law. 

“The hookah law doesn’t allow you to have food or alcoholic beverages in the same space. I don’t know why they did that. One of the things we would recommend to them is to not put that prohibition in,” O’Reilly added. “If you are a licensed hookah place, whether you serve food or alcohol should be immaterial. I don’t know what they were thinking when they wrote the law.”

Sareini pointed out that the moratorium should have been more specific to hookah lounges, because tobacco shops in Dearborn, which don’t serve either hookah or food, are also going to be impacted by the ban. 

At the city council meeting in August, some council members had stated that the city should consider passing zoning ordinances on hookah lounges. Councilman David Bazzy had expressed concerns that they are not dominating all of the business districts in the city. He also  expressed concerns of under age consumption and health issues. 

Sareini, on the other hand, said he is a believer in the free-market and that as long as the demand is there, business owners should be able to open establishments without having to go through obstacles. 

“You have a church on Michigan and Military and there’s a hookah bar right next to it and it’s legal,” Sareini added. “No one disagrees that it’s not good for the kids, but you don’t see them putting a stop on opening bars. Let them look at the high schools and see the drinking problems they have there. You have to be clear on the issue, and it shouldn’t result in a ban on businesses with no justification.”