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Tobacco a la Carte / Pick what to eat and what to smoke at convivial cafe 

Dabous and Ismail, 25, also ordered something diners would be hard-pressed to find at other Mid-South restaurants.

Restaurant owner Ghazi Abuhussein brought to their table two yard-tall water pipes, also known as hookahs, nargiles or hubble-bubble pipes.

Cafes in Middle Eastern countries commonly make hookahs available to their customers, who enjoy them as a social activity as well as for the sensory pleasures of smoking. "We start talking about work," and then the conversation turns to home, Ismail said. . .

The weekend outings to Jerusalem Cafe, 1664 Sycamore View near Bartlett, provide a relaxing break for these Cairo natives, who pack a lot of work into their weekdays.

Ismail, who emigrated two years ago, is a graduate teaching assistant at University of Tennessee Health Science Center and researcher at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Dabous, who graduates this spring from the University of Memphis, works in a kidney-transplant unit at UT Health Science Center.

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