SCHENECTADY — The Capital Region is poised to get its first hookah lounge, a place where one can smoke flavored tobaccos out of a water pipe that's rooted in traditions of India and Persia.

Wahiba Elassali, a city resident and Morocco native whose husband owns a building at 129 S. Brandywine Ave., said she got site plan approval from the city Planning Commission last week to open the lounge in a building near the Interstate 890 interchange.

One might not know the hookah by name, but its image is a familiar one. The metal canister, hose and pipe is what the caterpillar smokes from in the classic Lewis Carroll book and Disney film "Alice in Wonderland." Flavored tobacco is lit and its smoke is passed through water in the canister and cooled before it is inhaled through a pipe.

Hookah lounges are gaining in popularity in large cities. New York state considers hookah lounges retail tobacco establishments, and the businesses must make the majority of their profits on tobacco sales. Sometimes the spots are laid-back coffeehouses; others are posh nightclubs. City Beer Hall in Albany hosted a "hookah night" on Tuesdays this past summer.

But Elassali said her business, which will open around the first of the year, will resemble what real lounges look like in her country — a cafe. She will serve coffee, tea and desserts, and small hookahs will be provided to each patron. She said the smoke generated by a hookah is aromatic and much less dense than that from cigarettes and cigars.

Elassali recognizes that care must be taken when running such an establishment. There are concerns that people will smoke other substances, such as marijuana. Hookah lounges on Long Island have gotten into trouble for letting in teenagers under 18 and for allowing customers to bring in alcohol. Last year, Suffolk County required that health warnings be posted in such lounges about the dangers of tobacco use.

Elassali said she will employ security on premises to monitor activity, and that alcohol will not be served.

"It will be very hard in the beginning because people won't know exactly what's going on," said Elassali, who got the idea from selling flavored tobaccos at her and her husband's store, International Food Market on Albany Street. They previously ran a dollar store where the lounge will be. She said she is trying to appeal to Americans and Arab immigrants alike.

City Beer Hall is planning to resume its hookah nights next summer. The bar charges $20 a table for the tobacco and to rent the hookah, which can only be used on the bar's patio. Disposable plastic mouth guards are passed out to people at the table, and each takes a turn using it to smoke from the pipe.

"I went to SUNY Albany, and I remember I used to love going to hookah lounges in New York and I never could find one in Albany," said City Beer Hall co-owner Kenny Schachter. He said his bar pairs tobacco flavors like strawberry and vanilla with speciality beers.

lstanforth@timesunion.com • 518-454-5697