Every detail in Christine Dzilvelis’s whimsical tea services is intentional and curated, so it would be easy to assume that her recent Greek theme was planned around the release of Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster film “The Odyssey.”
“But here’s the weird thing,” said the Muir’s Tea Room owner. “I had no idea the movie was coming out.”
It’s not the first time Dzilvelis benefited from such serendipity in the 12 years of running her small business. In January and February, she unwittingly hosted a Dolomites-themed tea while the Olympics were being held in Italy.
The small business owner rotates themes every month or two for her elaborate tea services, and the motif is carried through every last detail: the email newsletters, the menu cards, the tags attached to the tea towers and even each individual tabletop.
The backdrop for the decorations was its own project—an 1894 Queen Anne Victorian Dzilvelis gutted and refurbished with wallpaper from England and trim and rosettes sourced from salvage yards, an effort that won her an award for best adaptive use.
“I want people to immerse,” Dzilvelis said. “I want immediate enjoyment.”
To craft her visions, Dzilvelis spends hours poring through her collection of over 3,000 vintage images—she has an entire room devoted to them. The small business owner is a frequent traveler and finds inspiration and decorations from the destinations she visits. She’s been to Ireland alone 16 times, particularly captivated by its magic.
Her hard work has attracted devoted followers. Tea enthusiasts drive from San Jose and San Francisco and even fly in from London and New York City to enjoy tea at Muir’s.
“They’ll make a trip out of it,” she said. “But they’re coming to see us.”
Yet it’s not only the thoughtfulness in theme and decor in which Muir’s stands apart. The tea house serves an entirely vegan menu—one that meat-eaters, vegetarians and vegans alike can enjoy. The ingredients are often local and all organic, the preparations unique and on theme, the desserts not overly sweet. Some patrons stop by the cold case on the weekend just to pick up pastries or savories to go.
“Greeks do have a way with food,” she said. Her 25-year-old daughter helps in the kitchen, along with a staff Dzilvelis can’t say enough good things about.
Dzilvelis, who grew up in Los Angeles in a Greek household, had a life-altering experience around age four that set her upon the path of veganism. It all began with lamb that was served at a picnic.
“Greeks roast the entire body, with the tongue and eyes dangling out,” she said. “It was shocking. I never ate meat ever again.” An environmental activist since age eight, Dzilvelis has attended protests and picketed the Canadian Embassy to protest the hunting of seals. The food at Muir’s Tea Room is gentle on the earth; so is the namesake for the business. A portrait of the celebrated environmentalist occupies a prime position above the mantle.
Dzilvelis’s idea for a tea room came from a similar flash of inspiration, a moment that appeared like a scene in a film—and had actual celebrities. When she was around 16, she was walking with an English friend in Santa Monica who needed to stop by a friend’s house to pick something up. They went to a “darling” Victorian home and Bernard Fox, the Welsh actor who played Dr. Bombay on the famed 1960s television series “Bewitched,” opened the door, handlebar mustache and all.
“His wife was setting up this whole tea service in the window, and I just thought I had gone to Disneyland,” Dzilvelis said. “I looked at it and was intoxicated.”
Dzilvelis said someone might not have the time to assemble a whole tower of goodies—that is usually preserved for Sundays—but there is always time to take an afternoon break with a cuppa and cookie or “elevenses” (the finger sandwiches). “I just love that ritual,” she said.
Tea with Dr. Bombay was not her only brush with celebrity. The Los Angeles native was also friends with famed author Ray Bradbury, who designed her travel itinerary for her when she visited Oaxaca for Día de los Muertos.
“His house in West L.A. was wonderful. It was extremely cluttered, but in a magical sense. He had it all: dragons and spaceships and animals,” she said. “He would always say to me, ‘If everything’s orderly and tidy, you’re not living. You have to be bursting out of the seams.’”
Perhaps that’s part of why Dzilvelis takes such time to craft her elaborate realms of magic and whimsy—to make her patrons feel more fully connected to the beauty of life. Like many of us, her most transportive experiences happened when she was a child and young adult: seeing that spinning lamb, glimpsing that wondrous tea tower, befriending the bewitching Bradbury. With so many of her customers bringing their own children in for tea and wonderment, she is passing those formative moments of whimsy onto them.
Dzilvelis’s favorite book when she was a child was “Wind in the Willows.” Depicting a world of lush riverbanks and huge trees populated with all sorts of creatures, it was an enchanting text to absorb while she was living on bone-dry Mulholland Drive. The book was ethereal; it was also an escape—just like her tea room is for the customers who come in.
“I think that life is so, so, so beautiful. You can’t even express it,” she said. “But it also comes with such difficulties. You love and you lose, and it is such a difficult formula that occasional escape and whimsy is so valuable.”
Muir’s Tea Room is located at 330 S Main St., Sebastopol. They are open Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. The current theme—Muir’s Dreamy Greek Island Mythology High Tea—runs from August 9-September 20. Halloween comes next. From October 3-31, Muir’s will serve the Enchanted Hallows Eve High Tea.
She is amazing. Her food is wonderfully delicious. My experience with Christine is that she is a genuinely kind and caring person.