Booze-free cafe and club set to open on The Strand

PIPES of herbal tobacco will be sold 24 hours a day, seven days a week at an alcohol-free cafe which is set to open its doors on The Strand later this month.
NZ Party Pills' owner Gary Read said Chaos Headquarters would remain open long after other pubs and restaurants have closed for the night.
But the venue has already attracted police attention before it has even opened its doors.
Western Bay of Plenty Area Commander Mike Clement said police would meet with council staff tomorrow to discuss the "appropriateness" of Chaos Headquarters' location on The Strand.
Mr Clement would not be drawn on making any further comment.
With a law banning the supply, manufacture and exporting of party pills containing BZP due to be passed later this month, Mr Read said he was phasing party pills out of his business.
Located in the former Hot on the Rocks premises, between Merhaba and Soho restaurants, Mr Read said Chaos Headquarters would feature a dance floor with local DJs - starting about 2.30am - playing music similar to that of a nightclub, including hard house and drum 'n' bass.
"We'll have a couple of big names now and then," he told the Bay of Plenty Times.
Also on offer will be shisha herbal tobacco, served in a water pipe to be smoked while seated outdoors on The Strand.
Mr Read described shisha as relaxing and euphoric and said it contained only a minuscule amount of nicotine.
"We'll set the tobacco up in the pipes and take it to people's table and they can sit down and smoke a shisha," he said.
Mr Read said he knew of a Turkish restaurant in Rotorua which offered shisha and other venues along K Rd in Auckland.
From Thursday to Saturday nights the cafe will be restricted to those aged 18 years and over.
"We don't want it to be a hangout for 12- and 13-year-olds," said Mr Read, who added there was a need for an all night venue with only one city bar open after 3am to cater for people who wanted to drink alcohol.
"A lot of people go home or they hang out on the streets. They don't need to keep getting intoxicated to have a good time."
He said the cafe could also be hired for private functions including teenagers wanting a nightclub atmosphere minus the alcohol.
Mr Read said he had owned Auckland-based hospitality businesses in "his younger days" and frequents shisha bars overseas.
He did not wish to reveal how much the cafe was costing him to set up.
"Everyone says that they need something like this in Tauranga but nobody's ever done it. It's something I've always wanted to do," he said.
"Tauranga's come into the 21st century, I'm dragging it in slowly."
The cafe will sell non-alcoholic drinks, fruit smoothies, organic coffee, herbal tea and a menu of light meals.
Mr Read said 22 staff had already been employed and he expected to employ a further five before opening day with full and part-time staff covering three eight-hour shifts over a 24-hour period.
Tauranga City Council's planning department said The Strand was zoned in the district plan as a commercial business area and there were no restrictions on hours of opening.