High 5: BYOB restaurants

Zeeba Lounge

Yes, you can sit around your living room and smoke your roommate's hookah, but can you do that while watching a live belly dancer? No, no you can't.

Zeeba, however, offers the chance to eat tasty Mediterranean food and drink your own alcohol while toking on a hookah or watching the aforementioned belly dancer pivot around the room. (Apparently hookahs are immune from the smoking ban.)

Unfortunately, Zeeba charges a corkage fee; $1 per beer or $8 for a bottle of wine or alcohol. This seems steep for those used to drinking bottles of wine that only cost $8 in the first place.

Zeeba is almost too pretty to resist, with low couches that beg you to recline. Feed your inner Roman emperor by lying back and nibbling on tasty chicken kabobs or spanikopita. For those a little hungrier, try a gyro.

We debated, does good spanikopita and a corkage fee make for a best of BYOB? We debated while rolling the piquant smoke of strawberry-orange hookah tobacco around our tongues. The extras, from hookahs to belly dancers, set Zeeba apart.

Drink recommendation: A bottle of ouzo might complement the mezzes well, though a spicy red wine would also match the zesty Mediterranean fare.