Las Vegas has its share of success tales, however Paymon Raouf’s story might high the checklist. Almost 40 years in the past, the Iranian immigrant hopped on a aircraft to Vegas by a refugee program in quest of a brand new life. He’s since turn into a good drive within the native meals scene, establishing Paymon’s Mediterranean Lounge & Cafe on Maryland Parkway in 1988 as a frontrunner in Mediterranean delicacies, and later as a full-fledged hookah lounge.
“The strain was on me, in a means, to have the ability to set up this, to have the ability to proceed this,” Raouf says, gesturing across the hookah den of Paymon’s Recent Kitchen & Lounge, a location he opened 21 years in the past on Sahara Avenue. “I constantly needed to innovate the best way we do issues, to have the ability to introduce it to American tradition, to simply accept it into changing into their very own. Immediately, hookah and hookah lounges are usually not a distant factor anymore.”
In 2023, the Metropolis of Las Vegas dubbed Paymon’s Recent Kitchen & Lounge “America’s First Hookah Lounge.” The Weekly sat down with Raouf to debate his enduring legacy, how elders performed a task in his recipes and extra.
By now, I think about a technology of regulars who’ve been consuming at your eating places for years.
I grew up with them. We grew to become family and friends. I bear in mind in the future I used to be standing within the entrance and I used to be greeting individuals. A woman about your age got here from the lavatory along with her 7 year-old daughter and stated, “Are you Paymon?” I stated, “Sure. How are you? Is every little thing okay?” She gave me a glance and stated, “Do you bear in mind me?” I’m taking a look at her, I’m wanting on the child. I say, “Ought to I?” [Laughs.] She stated, “I used to come back to your restaurant with my dad and mom once I was 7 years previous. Now I come to your restaurant with my 7-year-old.” That’s why, if you stated one technology, I need to inform you no, it’s three generations.
I’ve tables the place they arrive in, the grandma and grandpa, their child and their grandkids, and all three of them, for years, they’ve come to Paymon’s. These are the explanations that I’m nonetheless on this enterprise. The eating room turns into your house.
How did you get began in Vegas?
On the finish of 1987, I got here by a refugee program by Catholic Charities. They despatched me proper to Las Vegas. I had two jobs as a dishwasher and a busboy in two totally different resorts, working 16 hours a day with no automotive. These days, it was very laborious. So I saved my cash, and I opened a small grocery retailer referred to as Jap Bazaar with my brother. It wasn’t very profitable, simply promoting groceries to a really small handful of the Center Jap neighborhood. So I began promoting meals little by little. I had a bit of deli case, and a gentleman walked in and stated, “What do you bought to eat?” I wasn’t a restaurant. I used to be only a grocery retailer. And since I used to be determined to pay hire, I stated, “What would you want? [Laughs.] I’ve all these chilly cuts, I could make you a sandwich.” That was my first expertise within the restaurant enterprise.
He got here again the subsequent day with two extra guys and stated, “That sandwich was good. Give me two extra.” I stated, “Gee, I could make some cash doing that.”
Little by little, when older women got here in to purchase groceries—Greek women, Turkish women, Armenians, Arabs, Persians—once they got here in, I exchanged recipes for $50 groceries. I gave them $50 value of groceries, and so they gave me a recipe for hummus, a recipe for falafel and a recipe for various issues from totally different areas.
That’s wonderful. I really like that.
The good factor about it was most of those women, they have been housewives; conventional Center Jap housewives. So that they by no means earned cash themselves. What they knew most, like my very own mom, was taking good care of household and cooking for household.
I get emotional about this. Once they went dwelling with handfuls of groceries, they went dwelling and confirmed off to their husbands what they did. It’s truly the primary time they monetized. In addition to taking good care of household and washing garments and cleansing the house, they have been truly collaborating. That made Paymon really feel actually good.
What was your early relationship with hookah like?
I’m from Iran, so once I was a child I used to make hookah for my dad when he’d come from work. I favored doing it. It wasn’t a chore, but it surely was one thing that my dad would say, “Hey, Paymon, are you able to make me hookah?” I used to be very excited to do this, since you’re enjoying with the hearth, you’re doing all that stuff. It was actually attention-grabbing.
So how precisely did Paymon’s turn into “America’s First Hookah Lounge?”
Within the 12 months 1999, on the Maryland location, there was a patio hallway within the center after which there was a hookah lounge. Earlier than the hookah lounge, I used that room through the day. I put a giant TV in there for all these inventory merchants. They used to come back over there for lunch … so they might watch MSNBC. The day that the market was good, it was a very good feeling. The day that the market was down, I felt negativity. So I made a decision to vary one thing in that room. I needed to construct a tea home. I traveled to totally different locations in America. I even traveled to China, so I might study increasingly more about tea. However Vegas was not prepared for a tea home on the time. We’re speaking about 1999. So in the future I used to be considering, how about if I serve hookah?
How difficult was it to get that concept off the bottom?
First, I talked to my lawyer, and he stated, “You’re out of your thoughts.” In these days, Philip Morris [International, a multinational tobacco company] was being sued by many various states, and there was a multi-billion greenback lawsuit happening. I heard the priority, and I needed to see how I might shield myself. So I made the equipment. I made bowls with a clip and all that as a result of individuals weren’t educated sufficient. I used to be afraid that folks would contact the charcoal. Crucial one [to get approval from] was the well being division. I took a hookah, put it within the duffel bag, and went over there. Then they stated, “What’s in it? What do you need to do?” I confirmed them the hookah, and the man began laughing at me. He stated, “Are you severe? You need to serve a bong?” I stated, “It’s not a bong, it’s a water pipe!” After some forwards and backwards, I bought their blessing.
What occurred subsequent?
I stated OK, I’m gonna do it, regardless that my very own father, who was smoking a hookah on the time, stated, “You’re nuts. You possibly can’t try this as a result of this tradition just isn’t prepared. They don’t comprehend it.” There have been hookah cafes that have been largely conventional hookah cafes with largely Center Jap males. There have been no mouthpieces. There have been individuals passing the hookahs, and so they have been smoking actual tobacco, serving espresso and tea. They usually have been enjoying some Center Jap music. It wasn’t inviting to the American crowd. So I just about westernized the expertise. I introduced within the alcohol, good cocktails and performed good American music. The workers, they have been all American workers. I introduced the previous world … into the brand new world customary—the American customary.
It seems like everybody desires Mediterranean meals now, and hookah is in all places. How do you retain Paymon’s contemporary after nearly 40 years?
If you happen to love what you do, you need to make issues higher daily. You’re in search of new methods of doing issues, new components, new recipes. That’s why our menu is so massive. We provide Italian, we provide Greek, we provide Lebanese meals, Persian meals, Indian meals, gluten free. We’re true Mediterranean. A variety of locations nowadays think about themselves Mediterranean, however they’re solely Greek. We’ve so many gadgets that it covers the entire Mediterranean area. India just isn’t within the Mediterranean. Iran just isn’t a Mediterranean area, however these are the gadgets which are well-known and consumed within the Mediterranean area.
As a result of every little thing is getting costly, all people, they want to lower a nook someplace to have the ability to keep in enterprise, to be worthwhile. However consider it or not, I’m in search of higher components to have the ability to produce a greater dish as a result of I really feel individuals are getting educated daily on social media, Meals Community and so forth. Individuals need to know what they’re consuming. If individuals are getting extra educated daily about what they eat, we have to supply them gadgets that they need.
That’s a fantastic high quality olive oil, nice high quality kalamata olives, a very good cheese. If I’m gonna eat right here daily, and my workers and my clients, we higher have nice components and nice flavors so we are able to fulfill their wants.
Would you ever think about passing the legacy of the lounge and the restaurant all the way down to your youngsters to allow them to proceed it?
I don’t need to insult myself and different restaurateurs, however youngsters nowadays, they will make simpler cash. It is a lot of laborious work and extra energy to them. All people’s bought to observe their very own ardour. I’m 62 years previous, and I wish to consider I’ll be capable to do that for one more possibly 20 if I can. If I can are available in with a walker, I’d like to come back in and do it. Hopefully I’ll be capable to do that for a protracted life.
PAYMON’S FRESH KITCHEN & LOUNGE 8380 W. Sahara Ave. #150, 702-804-0293, paymons.com. Sunday-Thursday, noon-midnight; Friday & Saturday, noon-1 a.m.
