Daisy Hart sits down with Abe (Tariq) of Abe’s Smoke Shop.
Abe — brand name of a shop owner whose real name is Tariq (and who also answers to “Sal”) — sits down with host Daisy Hart at his third and newest location, a former tire shop turned hookah lounge on Airport Boulevard in Central Austin. He explains that Abe’s Smoke Shop is named after his father, Abe, carrying on an oldest-son “junior” tradition he plans to pass to his own future son. With Texas threatening to ban THC and hemp, Abe has deliberately pivoted the business toward culture and community — comedy open mics, music videos, mic drops, and events — arguing that “you can’t take community away” even if the cannabis sales get legislated out. He talks up local hemp brands, frames his shop as a “legal pharmacy” where people come to unwind, and closes with a rallying cry against Governor Greg Abbott and the pending hemp legislation that he says puts tens of thousands of Texas jobs at risk.
Named after his father — a “junior” tradition
Abe is the brand name; Tariq is his real name (and “Sal” is his alias when ordering food). He named the shop after his dad, Abe: “In my culture like I’m a junior since I’m the oldest son… trying to pass down the tradition. So my son will be called Abe.” He calls himself “Abu Abe” — the guy in the middle of three generations.
From bread factory and tire shop to smoke empire
The first location, on the Tillery/Chicon side of East Austin, sits in the building of an old bread bakery (“we’re definitely baked in there”). The third location — where the interview happens — was an old tire shop that was slated to be a coffee shop before it became a hookah lounge “by going with the flow.” Murals throughout the shops were done by an artist called Scrap Tank Collectibles, who makes toys out of spray cans.
“Here at Apes we’re really trying to change the culture of things, giving people a second place to, you know, other than work, work in home to come by and hang out and just be yourself and, you know, express their thoughts whether it’s through comedy or music or, you know, whatever.”
Abe (Tariq)
Deliberately capping at three shops
Abe is keeping it local — “Austin is where we’re at, I’m from here, born and raised” — and has decided three shops is the right size: “When you get more, it becomes less quality. We’re trying to keep the quality up.” He’d previously considered opening a restaurant (his cousins run the New York-style halal spot Halal Bros, since 2010; he grew up “frying falafel and making hummus”), but decided “fuck the food business — I don’t want to smell like food anymore.”
Culture as a survival strategy against the Texas ban
With THC and hemp regulation “up in the air,” Abe has shifted the business toward community and culture: comedy, music, music videos, mic drops, and events, including South by Southwest activity. His logic: cannabis sales might get legislated away, but “you can’t take community away,” so he’s “thinking long-term, not just short-term with the cannabis sales.” He frames the shop as a modern “third place” — the coffee-shop-and-cards hangout he says America is now lacking — and notes the hookah lounge idea became a local trend after he did it.
The hemp market has cooled
Abe says the hemp market “isn’t how it used to be a year or two ago”; people are buying less hemp, which reinforces his pivot to culture and events. He still carries what customers need and highlights Texas hemp brands — Sweet Sensi (he was one of the first stores to carry it), Mind’s Eye, and Hometown Hero — while “weighing on what it’s gonna look like.”
Weed as medicine and a “legal pharmacy”
Abe repeatedly frames cannabis as medicine — for PTSD, sleep, and pain — and calls his shop “a little pharmacy, a legal pharmacy” where people come to unwind and relax. He and Daisy riff that “a gummy is way better than a Xanax,” noting the seizure risk of coming off benzodiazepines.
Lobbying and the jobs argument
Abe argues the THCA/hemp business brings billions to Texas annually and that a “nonsense bill” puts tens of thousands of jobs at stake. He says his team includes biochemical engineers who worked in big pharma and now offer themselves as resources to lawmakers “so they don’t write bills to screw everything over.” He closes with an extended broadside against Governor Greg Abbott (“We’re in 2025, we’re not in 1993… THCA is not hurting anybody”). —
“I always call my little smoke shop a little pharmacy, a legal pharmacy where you know, you can come and unwind and you know, relax.”
Abe (Tariq)