News

Actions

Owner of lounge says curfew will only cause more problems

Hookah lounge responds to curfew talk
Posted
and last updated

The city of Bakersfield is discussing putting a curfew on hookah lounges in hopes of stopping recent violence occurring in the early morning hours at the lounges.

As you might imagine, the local hookah lounges are not happy with the potential change to their hours.

Yousef Harb, the co-owner of Cloud 9 Hookah Lounge, says closing the lounges at 2 a.m. will only bring more problems.

"It's not going to help us because if we close at 2, the crowd is still going to be there, it's going to push a much bigger crowd at 2 rather than pushing out the few that are left at 4," Harb said.

Those bigger crowds can present more problems and Harb believes the lounges do their best to provide safety.

"If the person did in fact enter the establishment, we would have no problem with it being recorded because if happened in our establishment, we take responsibility for it," Harb said.

"However, if it happened outside, there is only so much we can do."

Harb says hookah is getting a bad rap for instances that are outside of the lounges' control.

"If you aim to just actually do what hookah is about, which is just smoking, having a good time with friends, then you shouldn't be encountering any of these problems to begin with."

 

,

Weather

Daily Forecast

View Hourly Forecast

Day

Conditions

HI / LO

Precip

Saturday

06/06/2026

Clear

-° / 64°

0%

Sunday

06/07/2026

Mostly Clear

90° / 62°

0%

Monday

06/08/2026

Partly Cloudy

91° / 63°

2%

Tuesday

06/09/2026

Clear

88° / 66°

2%

Wednesday

06/10/2026

Clear

96° / 71°

0%

Thursday

06/11/2026

Clear

104° / 75°

0%

Friday

06/12/2026

Clear

106° / 75°

0%

Saturday

06/13/2026

Clear

104° / 74°

0%