New tea cafe on Main Street will bring teas, ‘mocktail’ hours and holistic healing to downtown Riverhead

A local yoga instructor and alternative medicine practitioner is planning to open a tea cafe on Main Street this spring.

The cafe — “Vital-A-tea” by Pharmacology — will serve tea in its sit-down cafe as well as offer packaged loose-leaf teas for sale.

The shop is the labor of love of Jamesport resident Carolyn Poncato. Poncato is a practitioner of Ayurveda, one of the world’s oldest holistic healing systems. She hopes to incorporate Ayurvedan practices into her tea cafe, since a core principle of Ayurveda is the use of natural herbal remedies to treat common physical and mental ailments.

“I want to help people become the healthiest, most radiant versions of themselves,” she said.

The 1,100-square foot space will have couches and tables for customers to relax with their cups of tea. There will also be a bar where the tea will be served.

As the weather gets warmer, Poncato is also planning to offer a “mocktail” hour with live acoustic music on the weekends. These tea tastings will mimic the wine culture on the North Fork, with sweet dessert teas served in martini glasses and offered alongside cheese platters.

“You can sit back and relax and not get drunk,” she said. “Everything revolves around drinking around here. This way, people can experience the North Fork on that level without the alcohol involved.”

As a yoga instructor, she also hopes to eventually incorporate her yoga lessons into the shop’s menu of services. At its core, Ayurveda focuses on the balance of mind, body and spirit, so tea and yoga are a perfect fit for Poncato’s cafe.

“It’s about finding a sense of peace within yourself,” she said.

Poncato discovered her love for Ayurveda — and teas — shortly after her mother’s death in 2006.

“I was devastated after my mom died,” Poncato said. “All my doctors wanted to do was prescribe me drugs. But I had a friend who gave me a couple different teas — white, rose hips and red, which is mentally sustaining  — and I never had to go on anything.”

When she was diagnosed with breast cancer shortly thereafter, Poncato found herbal remedies more effectively treated her pain post-surgery than conventional medicine.

“They gave me a Percocet at the hospital, and I had this awful, 18-hour long trip,” she said. “And that was just a pediatric dose.”

So, once more on the recommendation of a friend, she tried holy basil, an herb from India. “I took it and my pain was completely gone,” she said. “I had to go through the reconstruction and instead of doing any drugs, I just took the holy basil. I had no pain at all.”

She went on to train as a yoga instructor and then as an Ayurvedic practitioner. Despite a series of personal challenges —  her breast cancer diagnosis, a divorce and even temporary homelessness after her house was flooded from Hurricane Sandy — she found peace and healing in natural Ayurvedic remedies.

“With each thing that transpired, it slowly led me to live a more natural, peaceful life,” she said.

Poncato says she decided to open a tea shop to share that lifestyle with the community. She says she also saw a hole in the market – downtown Riverhead is lacking in sit-down cafes, and she will be the town’s first tea shop.

“Everyone is very excited about it,” she said. “Everywhere I go, people are telling me how excited they are.”

She hopes to open within four to six weeks. The cafe will be on the south side of East Main Street next to Robert James Salon and Spa.