Luxury Hookah Lounge Serving Elaborate Desserts Opens In Astoria

ASTORIA, QUEENS — There are many hookah bars in Queens, most of them dark lounges with a scant menu of shisha flavors, but luxury's on the menu at Astoria's newest dessert bar-slash hookah lounge.

Sands of Persia, a luxe hookah bar that opened at 25-01 Steinway Street on New Years Eve, is a collaboration between luxury car collector Abhi Malhotra and acclaimed restauranteur Salil Mehta (whose Manhattan eateries include Wau, Laut, and Singapura). The corner lounge used to be a different hookah bar, which shuttered in 2020.

Plush lounge chairs line the bar's gold-accented interior, which opens up to a heated outdoor patio. Bejeweled dancers and purple party lights filled the eatery on New Years Eve.

The lounge's menu also differentiates it from most run-of-the-mill hookah bars: elaborate desserts, like ice cream served in baklava cones and yuzu cake with lime and rosemary, are served up alongside some savory plates and a non-alcoholic drinks list.

Lounge-goers can smoke up to 30 shisha flavors from different smoking devices, all of which are displayed on shelves lining the bar's walls.

Sands of Persia's already buzzy Astoria outpost is just the first location for Malhotra and Mehta, who reportedly plan to open another branch in Dubai, followed by locations in London and New Delhi.

Sands of Persia is open from 3 p.m. to 3 a.m. daily. Food service stops one hour before closing.