“Tea is to the body as music is to the soul.” – Earlene Grey, author of Musing With a Cuppa; The Poetry of Tea.
Whether a cup of tea invokes for you a cozy British cottage, Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter, Mary Poppins, or Eloise at the Plaza, you can make your own memories at Tipple & Rose Tea Parlor and Apothecary on Nassau St. in Princeton.
This charming tea parlor, owned by married couple Doria Donati and Calavino Donati, provides a comforting break from today’s hectic pace and returns you to a by-gone era.
I had the pleasure of interviewing the couple, and here are excerpts from their interview.
How did the concept of Tipple & Rose start?
Doria Donati: I’m a musician by trade and profession but my wife, chef Calavino Donati, has owned restaurants for nearly 30 years in Atlanta. So, I was helping with our businesses there, doing the baking and social media, and decided to put music on the back burner for a little while and open my own concept to run. We went to look at a space for our sandwich shop, Urban Cannibals Bodega and Bites, and I said, “This would make a great tea parlor!” I was really excited about it and started studying the industry and tea for months on end until she came home with my lease and said, “Here are your keys. You have 30 days to open.” I opened Tipple & Rose in Atlanta in July 2015. If she hadn’t brought the lease home, I’d probably still be studying.
Can you give us any tips on brewing a good pot of tea?
DD: Quality tea is the most important component followed by proper steep time. We sell and serve over 140 whole-leaf teas and whole leaf is as premium as it gets. What you get in the grocery store has a lot of what are called “fannings,” which are the crumbled, dusty pieces of tea left over from mass machine harvesting. So, you’re not getting the pure leaves and not full tea leaf flavor. Steep time is important because tea has tannins, which gives it its character and astringency, but can turn bitter if over-steeped, so we give you a timer for your table and the steep time is on your bag if you buy ounces to take home. If you want to know more, we do “Tea 101 + Food Pairing” classes through the Princeton Adult School three times a year.
When did you open? Why did you choose Princeton?
DD: I grew up in North and West Trenton and went to school at Princeton Day School for high school. My mom, who was still in Trenton, had a stroke in April 2019 while we were in Atlanta, and we decided to come home to take care of her. We were here by December 2019 and had a letter of intent to rent the space we have now, but COVID hit hard in March 2020, and we were supposed to open the following month. So, we let it go and opened a barbecue place in Pennington called The Pig and The Pit literally to survive.
It was just the two of us, because we couldn’t risk being exposed to employees because of my mother. Then, we opened a retail-only version of Tipple & Rose two doors down from that to keep the following we’d built in Atlanta for e-commerce orders.
Miraculously, the original space in Princeton became available again, so we did a quick GoFundMe to get the lease and keys and, with that, moved in October 2021.
How did you first get involved in the food industry?
Calavino Donati: I grew up in my grandparents’ bar, nothing fancy, just a local mom-and-pop place with pickled eggs and frozen pizzas. So, I was practically born into hospitality. But my mother always took us out to eat and she was adventurous, so we had Mongolian stir fry, hibachi, and even found a place that served ostrich and alligator! When I finally had the opportunity to open my own restaurant when I was 26 years old in Atlanta, I took it. I named it the Roman Lily Cafe after my grandparents.
DD: Yes, and the Roman Lily had a cult following for years! That’s how I knew of her. When we started dating, a woman was frantically running toward us, crossing four lanes of traffic, and I thought she was going to ask for my autograph, but she just wanted to tell Calavino how much she loved her jalapenó tequila gravy from the Roman Lily! Very humbling, but she is that good!
My only restaurant experience was from working my way through school at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and then running our sandwich shop. Most of what I know now is from watching Calavino, but it’s not something I ever saw myself doing full time.
Who was your inspiration?
CD: My mom and grandparents.
DD: Calavino.
Do you bake your own scones and other baked goods?
DD: Yes, every morning unless the kitchen is hitting 90-plus degrees. I used to do all the dessert baking for our sandwich shop in Atlanta and, for some reason, I kept making scones even though no one bought them. I did this for nearly six years, and we argued about food costs because of it, but it came in handy when I opened Tipple & Rose, so I feel vindicated! When that happened, I only made scones because I didn’t have time for anything else.
How did you choose the menu?
DD: Our formal afternoon tea service was ranked No. 3 in the country by Travel + Leisure and the menus range from traditional version to brunch-themed. We also have a Southern-inspired menu with biscuits and a South Asian – inspired High Chai.
We went to a few afternoon teas around Atlanta for research and decided that we wanted to give guests a reason to keep coming back and not be stuck with what you can get just anywhere.
CD: I’m in charge of our daily menu concepts and the recipes, but we collaborate on them as well. Doria makes the quiches, soups, and scones and I do everything savory. Whenever we came up to see mom, we would go out to eat in Princeton to see what was happening and what wasn’t happening.
I always want to work within our immediate community wants and needs, and then push those boundaries a little to stand out. I never want to be redundant and always want to be sure I have a creative outlet. In our Atlanta restaurants, our menus were dictated by what was available locally and we were lucky to have a long growing season there. It’s a little different here, but the produce is amazing, so I’ll throw something on the menu just because I see something at the farmer’s market.
Tipple’s daily menu is bistro fare with hearty sandwiches and salads with lots of vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options every day, but we also have Tea Brined House Roasted Duck Salad and a Duck Bahn Mi. We also do tapas on the weekends, and this is where I get to have a little more creativity from week to week. We put our Tea and Tapas menu on hiatus during the summer, but it’ll be back in the fall.
Can you give aspiring home bakers a tip?
DD: Follow the directions! But seriously, baking is a science because it’s mostly chemical reactions coming together to produce a very specific outcome. If you don’t like the outcome, try another recipe. When you feel comfortable and can really execute the intended product, you can start experimenting. That’s when the art of it comes in. People often ask why we don’t hire another person to make scones, but it’s because I can taste a blueberry or raspberry and know how much juice it’s going to release during the baking process. That impacts the scone texture and flavor so it’s not always 1/2 cup of this or 1 cup of that. I’ve been making these for nearly 15 years so it’s hard to pass along the more intuitive stuff. So, just practice, practice, practice.
What kind of mercantile do you sell? Is it fair trade?
DD: We have a wide variety of things, but it’s all related to “tea culture.” We have the obvious brewing apparatus and mugs, but we also have cozy blankets, candles, luxurious small-batch bath and body products, incense, meditation books, journals, crafting accessories, and small unique gifts.
We also have a full zero-proof, non-alcoholic bottle shop and we host tastings through the Princeton Adult School. Our teas are from fair-trade farms all over the world and you can see where the tea has been sourced from on the menu.
Was the design of your store modeled after anything? Such as a trip to Europe?
DD: No, we’re used to starting out with blank spaces and turning them into restaurants. The Tipple & Rose in Atlanta was a hair salon and spa before we got to it and Urban Cannibals Bodega was a children’s clothing store. Tipple & Rose in Princeton was a rug shop for 30 years that was always going out of business, so we had a lot of blank space to play with. I broke the spaces up and made half of it a storefront in case restaurants ever shut down again.
The wall color is very calming and sets a neutral background for all the merchandise to really stand out. It’s the color of the patina on the wood floor.
The main dining room is an homage to Atlanta, which was our home for 26 years. I don’t like frilly things, so my inspiration was “speakeasy tea garden.” There are lots of dark green tones with white faux magnolia, dogwood, and wisteria branches for contrast and gilded mirrors for accents. The Cottage is very homey with vintage plates on the walls and family pictures, but still nice with lots of natural light and brighter furniture.
What’s your favorite part of owning a business? Least favorite?
DD: I love that I get to be creative in some way every day and I hate that I must be creative in some way every day! A cooler breaks or an ingredient doesn’t show up or, worse, an employee doesn’t show up and you have to really have to be on your toes, constantly! There’s no “rest,” really. It can wear you down.
Is there a customer favorite?
DD: The scones! Hands down.
” we finally started to work with Hi-TOPS, which was around when I was in high school 35 years ago, and did a few drag-show high-tea fundraisers.”
How are you involved with the LGBTQ community?
DD: We were both involved in Atlanta and even before we got to Atlanta. I organized a tour called Queerstock that started as a one-day event in Philadelphia in 1995, by a group called Grassroots Queers. I took that to Atlanta in 1996 and then around the country until 2004, raising money for LGBTQ youth organizations.
I received the Anderson Leadership Award from The Task Force (formerly NGLTF) for that work. In July 2013, I wrote an open letter to the Lieutenant governor of Florida published by The Huffington Post that went viral and started the hashtag #ThisIsWhatALesbianLooksLike. That same week we took on Chick-Fil-A and started making chicken sandwiches on Sundays to raise money for local queer youth.
It took some time here in Princeton because of COVID, but we finally started to work with Hi-TOPS, which was around when I was in high school 35 years ago, and did a few drag-show high-tea fundraisers!
Otherwise, we just want to do the daily work of creating safe space for ourselves and everyone else by being visible and proud.
Any advice for LGBTQ youth of today?
DD: You have a lot of battles still ahead, but you have a great foundation to work with built by people who came before you. Your elders are now here to follow wherever you lead. We’re listening. This is your time! Work hard to create change, but don’t forget to enjoy the victories along the way. Oh, yes, and vote!
What are your future plans for your business?
DR: Too many things to name, really, but we’re mostly just focusing on navigating our first full “normal” year here since COVID. We just want to keep serving and being part of our community.
How does social media help you?
DR: Social media is a godsend, but it’s also a lot of work. Every week there seems to be a new platform to post on or a new trend to follow and it’s hard to keep up when you do it yourself. Everyone seems to want to go viral and we’re just like, “Hey, it’s hot and sunny out! We have iced tea, and these are our scones for the day!” We like to keep it human, conversational, and a little nerdy at times and hope people find their way to us.
For hours and more information go to tippleandrose.com.
