Meet Qadriyyah Rasheed-Calhoun | Experience Curator & Hookah Caterer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Qadriyyah Rasheed-Calhoun and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Qadriyyah, every day, we talk about how much execution matters, but we think ideas matter as well. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
We already had the hookah business for 3 years during the pandemic people wasn’t going out. Hookah and it’s supplies was in high demand during this time. I noticed that there was a lot of people offering come to your house or park picnics. I told my partner it would be dope if we was able to have a hookah picnic. At this point during the pandemic people was having gatherings in small numbers. We bring the hookah lounge to our guest. Hence the name Pop Up n Puff. We POP UP and you PUFF.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
• Please tell us more about your business. Pop Up and Puff in a nut shell is a mobile hookah picnic business.

• We’d love to hear what sets you apart from others.

As Experience Curators, we effortlessly curate personalised experiences for our Pop Up n Puff guests on request. This allows us to introduce our guest to the fascination of being in a hookah lounge at home or park. So we’re not your ordinary picnic or hookah business. We use premium flavors to give our guest the best hookah session possible.

• What you are most proud of or excited about?

The excitement on our guest face when they see what we have set up for them. As well as the rave reviews of how much fun they had during their 3hr experience is what makes us excited to continue offering this service to people.

• What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way?

Whew we learned how to play Tetris. We have a Mazda Cx-5 packing up everything into the truck that we need to host a experience. Was our biggest challenge. Having the hookah business we already know how to handle that part. As well as having a background in event planning. So decorating our bubble was easy.

We definitely had to learn about promoting ourselves and still learning. We aren’t supersocial media type people so learning to use the social platform and let them work for us was pretty hard.

• What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?
We are a 100% black owned woman business. We take pride in every Pop Up n Puff experience we do. We love making our guest feel like this should never end.


Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Funny I had a friend in town this past weekend. Atlanta is a melting pot there’s so much to do.

Friday evening- Painted Duck

Saturday- Morning Aquarium, lunch Kabob land, dinner in Atlantic Station and Night dancing at Sudos Ellenwood

Sunday- brunch at one of the many brunch spots with unlimited mimosas, ferris wheel and end with a PopUpnPuff experience of course at the park

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Shermaine Rasheed-Calhoun

Instagram: www.instagram.com/PopUpnPuff

Facebook: www.facebook.com/PopUpnPuff

Other: Booking site: https://forms.gle/jjixWRqVcscE3yEu8