New owners are set to bring back a hookah lounge in downtown Farmingdale after it closed in February 2025 under different ownership.
The Village of Farmingdale Board of Trustees unanimously approved a special use permit for an 83-seat hookah lounge with a bar and a 14-seat exterior area at 356 Conklin St. at its meeting on Monday, Feb. 2.
The Mystique Gardens Hookah Lounge previously operated at the space for over a decade until its closure. Three men, Gustavo Diaz of Amityville, Evan Mirzakandov of Queens, and Sahil Gulati of New Jersey, said they plan to revitalize the lounge under a new name that has yet to be determined.
The new owners said there will be no changes to the business, but they want the space to be better run and more inviting to customers.
“Our main motive right now is to make sure that we provide a better interior, better quality of food and make sure that we provide something to bring people to the village,” Gulati said.
He said the previous owners had little involvement in the well-being of the lounge, something the new owners want to change.
“Our main focus is to bring the service to a top-notch place, make sure the area is clean, the surrounding is clean, and when you walk across the street, you see a place that you want to go in,” Gulati said.
The owners said the lounge will serve drinks and snacks and pointed out that the property has already had its liquor license approved.
The previous owners of Mystique Gardens had had issues securing its liquor license from the village board in the past, according to published reports.
The owners said hookah smoking will not take place in the outside area and outside music won’t be an issue for the village. They also said there will be no DJ inside the lounge.
Mayor Ralph Ekstrand said the permit will include language that does not allow the back space of the hookah lounge to be turned into a club, something he said was an issue with the previous owner.
The owners did not say when they expect to open.
The village board also announced at the meeting it plans to buy the building at 141 Division Street with a proposed purchase price of $650,000, subject to appraisal. Ekstrand said the plan is to tear down the building and then convert it into between 21 and 23 additional parking spaces.
The board said it did not know the estimated cost of the project.
The additional parking spaces would accompany the proposed theater that the village plans to build in its downtown district, which is expected to take away between 30 and 49 parking spaces from the village.
