Village of Great Neck Plaza trustees approved a conditional-use permit for Royal Tea House Wednesday, paving the way for the Victorian-style afternoon eatery to open sometime in the summer.
“It’s a nice prominent location in the village and we welcome a possibly new tenant in business,” Village of Great Neck Plaza Mayor Jean Celender said.
Albert Chen, architect for the project, said Royal Tea House would be a place where customers might sit for hours drinking tea and eating in the style of the British afternoon tea tradition, as opposed to a Starbucks or a Caffe Bene, one of which is located near the Royal Tea House.
English-style tea will be served along with beer and wine and smaller food items. The 1,600 square foot space at 1 Great Neck Road will be able to seat about 50 patrons, Chen said.
“It’s somewhere you might go to meet your accountant,” Great Neck Plaza Commissioner of Public Services Michael Sweeney said. “It’s more of an elegant sit-down facility where you can dine and enjoy your tea in peace.”
The owner of Royal Tea House, Ying Ling – who was not present at the board of trustees meeting – currently owns Rose House, another similar tea house in Flushing, Queens, which she has been operating for about eight years, Chen said.
“It’s very elegant inside, very upscale,” Celender said looking at photos of the inside of Rose House. “This is like nothing we have in the suburbs now.”
Chen said while the concept will be the same as the Flushing location, the inside design of Royal Tea House will be different. In the middle of the dining room, there is a column that Chen said he wants to make look like a tree, giving patrons the idea that they are sitting in a garden enjoying tea.
If people were coming in and out of the restaurant too often, Chen said, it would ruin the feel of the dining experience.
“We want to create a very fine dining space. We want people who come here to stay longer,” Chen said. “We want people who come here to be very comfortable.”
Chen said they are not sure when they will officially open, but the owner told him they were aiming at three months from the time of village approval. He said the owner’s broker had referred them to Great Neck as a place that would enjoy their style of tea shop .
“We wanted to find an ideal situation,” Chen said. “We wanted to find a neighborhood that appreciated this kind of product.”
