By Mallie Jane Kim
Robinson’s Tea Room provides the quintessential English experience of high tea, but for manager Dan Bussey of Sound Beach, it’s about far more than that.
Tucked into a back corner of Stony Brook Village Center at 97 Main St., the cozy, floral tea shop provides a backdrop Bussey hopes will transport visitors out of their daily Long Island lives to better focus on the people around the table.
“Our hope is that it’s more than just about food and tea — it’s about connections you make with the people who you come with,” Bussey said. “We hope we can facilitate that by providing really good tea and really good food.”
The tea room serves soups, salads and sandwiches, but of course the star is the classic three-tiered tea service, complete with fresh-made scones, finger sandwiches and sweet treats. The menu boasts more than 50 choices of tea to sip.
Michael and Donna Aliperti of Shoreham, Bussey’s parents-in-law, bought the tea room after it was shuttered in fall 2022, to the surprise and disappointment of its patrons at the time.
The Alipertis, a mechanical engineer and registered nurse, respectively, were convinced to invest after their daughter Michaella suggested they save Robinson’s, a tea room the Alipertis enjoyed, and that Michaella and Bussey visited on trips to Long Island while they were dating.
Bussey, who was born in England but raised in Nairobi, Kenya, because his parents are missionary teachers, grew up drinking both the sweet, milky chai typical in Kenya as well as the customary British Earl Grey at home.
When he moved to the United States to study music at Houghton University in Upstate New York, Bussey brought the tradition with him. He remembered late college nights preparing tea with his brother and a few friends from different African countries. The group soon grew to about 10 friends from eight different cultures, he said, including Michaella, now his wife.
“The experience of having tea together has been a big thing in my life,” he said. “It’s a time to connect and do life together and enjoy something tasty.”
When the opportunity to run Robinson’s came up, Bussey had just settled on Long Island after finishing his master’s in vocal performance at Penn State — he had been commuting back and forth to see Michaella, who is an elementary music and chorus teacher in Central Islip.
The gambit is paying off. The tea shop is often booked up on weekends and “healthily busy” most days, according to Bussey. And feedback has been positive.
Recent guest Jess Gilardi, of East Setauket, brought her daughters Anna, 10, and Mia, 6, for a “girls’ day out” and birthday celebration at the tea room. The girls were thrilled, and they said they loved the food. “It was very awesome and very cool,” Mia said. “I wish I could do it one hundred million times.”
Bussey acknowledged that, like any food service establishment, there have been kinks to work out, but he’s been eager to learn and grow. He spent several months training under the previous owner, Glenn Treacher, who reopened to show him the ropes before the official change of ownership in March 2023.
Treacher, who Bussey considers a mentor, also helped him build the employees into a team which, Bussey said, is one of his favorite parts about his job. If the power of tea is bringing people together, the employees are another model of that. “We’ve tried to set up a culture where each person has the other’s back,” he said, like busing a table or bringing out food if another worker is swamped. “It’s really about helping each other out.”
He hopes to provide a nonjudgmental environment that makes something traditionally British accessible, whether people come dressed up for a high tea or pop in on a whim after a hike at Avalon Park. He doesn’t want guests to worry whether they are pouring the tea correctly or adding too much sugar. “I’m English — I love all the pomp and circumstance that we attribute to things, but I don’t want that to hold people back from getting the experience. Tea is something everyone can enjoy.”
Robinson’s Tea Room is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays.
