PlanJam!From your screen to the scene

When I’m in the East Village and I’m looking for a place to really get crazy, Saturday night style, the first place I usually think of is Karma, the two-level bar and hookah lounge that has been intoxicating NYU students for years. Karma serves delicious and innovative cocktails and a decent selection of draft beers, though they sometimes mix their drinks a bit weak. The downstairs bar is more guilty of this slight (possibly because they assume the people dancing are already drunk), and the service is somewhat less attentive there, so I’d recommend you order your drinks at the upstairs bar. Regardless, the bartenders and staff, upstairs and downstairs, are always pleasant and enthusiastic, and their personable nature is a refreshing change from the cold treatment you usually get at hip lounges. Draft beers average $5-6 dollars, and mixed drinks approach $10, so be sure to take advantage of drink specials during happy hour, from 1-8pm, 7 days a week.

Hookahs are the real life of the party at Karma, however. For the uninitiated, hookahs are large, ornate water pipes with a rich cultural tradition dating back thousands of years, and they’re fun to smoke. The pipes are loaded with Shisha, a type of flavor-infused pipe tobacco, and you suck the tasty, water-cooled smoke through tubes, usually without inhaling. Hookahs create a fun communal mood and even non-smokers often enjoy a few relatively harmless puffs. The hookahs are a bit overpriced ($16 each), especially since the staff uses fast-burning coals and charge you for an extra coal. But it’s rare to find a good place to smoke a hookah anymore, and they have a lot of good Shisha flavors (my favorites are Apple and Strawberry). The hookahs are in keeping with Karma’s desert oasis theme, which is indicated in the decorations with palm trees, draped tapestries and warm red lighting, as well as the eclectic antique furniture which speaks of colonial times.

While you puff away, contemplating the essence of life, take a look at the often excellent artwork on the walls, which is the work of underground artists from the area. Don’t linger too long in this peaceful state, however, because Karma’s downstairs parties are almost as much of a trademark as their hookahs. There is pretty much always dancing on the lower level, though technically the customers are merely performing, hence the tiny stage at the end of the room (to keep within the limits of the ridiculous and outdated Cabaret Law). Occasionally you may be asked to move your dancing up onto the stage for this reason. It’s kind of annoying, but it makes it all the more ridiculous and fun attempting to follow these obscure rules while getting cheesed. The downstairs level of Karma is a great place for a big group of friends – people are always hosting parties there (me included), for birthdays, bachelorette parties, or any kind of celebration, really.

A word of warning: Karma is one of the few places in New York that still allows smoking, and people sure do take advantage, to such an extent that sensitive non-smokers may find Karma’s interior unpleasant. But since I spent my early bargoing years in Tucson, pre-smoking ban, inhaling massive plumes of secondhand smoke from the chain-smoking regulars, smoky bars now make me feel more nostalgic than annoyed. An air purification system is supposedly at work to combat the effects of the smoke, but it doesn’t seem to help much, especially on the lower level. Also the DJs often suck, but that’s a problem common to a lot of bars and lounges, and they do allow a lot more fun audience participation, which can be good (when you’re the one singing and dancing onstage) and bad (when anyone else is).

All in all, Karma may not be the swankiest lounge in New York, nor the best place to go dancing, nor the best hookah bar, but it benefits from having a little of everything. And after you’ve had a couple of drinks and a few puffs on the hookah, it’ll seem like the Ivy.