Entrepreneur Invests $30,000 to Start 3,000 Sq Ft Frandor Hookah Hangout

Looking for a place to go after the bars close? Try Lansing’s Saylis Hookah Lounge & Café.

Located  in the southwest corner of the Frandor shopping center behind Video to Go, Saylis' is owned by Ilyas Bussuri, 26, and his brothers.

Bussuri’s family is from Egypt. He was born in Somalia, grew up in Kenya and came to Lansing many years ago with his family as a refugee. After working at General Motors and then driving trucks around the country, he invested $30,000 in the renovation of the 300 N. Clippert St. space.

“I decided instead of taking my business to another state, I’d rather build up my own city,” says Bussuri, who is the manager of Saylis.

Saylis' shop offers more than 40 different kinds of tobacco, a large room full of couches surrounded by a hand painted Egyptian mural and a VIP room.

Saylis has fantastic adani tea and wi-fi internet access. Saylis is only open in the evenings, but Bussuri would like to expand his hours and his kitchen.

Saylis is open until 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. depending on the day of the week, and often gets the Trippers’ after bar crowd.

Source: Ilyas Bussuri, Saylis Hookah Lounge & Café

Ivy Hughes is the managing editor of Capital Gains and can be reached here

All Photographs © Dave Trumpie

Enjoy this story? Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.
Signup for Email Alerts