A new merchant has arrived in Great Neck Plaza and is  offering residents a product they may not know well: bubble tea.
Wilson Lam, one of the partners of ViVi Bubble Tea, said after he and his partner tried bubble tea, a Taiwanese tea-based drink with tapioca balls or fruit jellies, they fell in love with it and wanted more people to enjoy the drink.
“We feel that authentic bubble tea, aka boba tea, is still in its infancy outside of Asian communities,” Lam said. “Even though we’d been warned by our colleagues that simply put, bubble tea in Long Island is an unattractive business proposal, we just took a leap of faith and trusted that if adventurous people tried it, they might just fall in love with it like we did.”
ViVi Bubble Tea held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at its location at 6 South Station Plaza, the franchise’s first in Long Island.
 Mayor Jean Celender of Great Neck Plaza said the business offers something for young people and for families to enjoy.
“It’s great that they chose Great Neck Plaza for their first Long Island location,” Celender said.
While many stores in Great Neck close in the early evening, ViVi Bubble Tea is looking to change that trend.
Lam said the store stays open sometimes past midnight, allowing residents to have a place to go because sometimes Great Neck “can be a little quiet at night.”
“We’d like to create a livelier atmosphere for people to hang out at night,” he said. “We’d like a place parents feel safe, a place where we meet to talk and do work and to network, a place that’s closer to home to get some grub when we’re hungry.”
Lam also said that with the store remaining open later, residents can feel like they have a place to go rather than traveling to find a place to socialize.
“By doing this, maybe fewer people will need to travel elsewhere on the LIRR or Long Island Expressway because it’s inconvenient sometimes,” he said. “So, if you have nothing going on at night, stop by the tea bar for quiet time or to meet friends to hang out.”
Lam said he hopes that ViVi Bubble Tea’s arrival in Great Neck will help change some people’s opinions that bubble tea is just a “kid’s drink.”
“We’ve seen people of all ages love it,” he said.
For avid coffee drinkers, Lam said, bubble tea can serve as an alternative.
“I’ve heard that tea contains natural antioxidants, has less caffeine than coffee, and boosts the immune system,” he said. “If you’re feeling a little exhausted and need an energy boost, try a bubble tea.”
When ViVi Bubble Tea first received approval from Great Neck Plaza trustees in February, there were plans to use the store’s basement as a lounge area, but that is being put on hold temporarily.
“There is a downstairs, but due to some complications with the basement, we currently can’t utilize it,” Lam said. “We had planned on making it a lounge area for karaoke, movies, birthday parties, tech meet-ups, and various meet-ups our community might be interested in.”
Celender said that ViVi Bubble Tea does a good job of using social media, which could benefit surrounding merchants.
“I think that’s the way things are at now and it’s good we have a merchant that is incorporating all these new types of retailing trends,” she said. “Maybe that can help the neighbors as they network with other stores that are open.”
Lam said that most of the business’ employees live in the Great Neck area and wanted an operation in a prominent neighborhood.
“We love the community and people, it’s prestigious and we wouldn’t have started anywhere else in Long Island,” he said.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony was attended by Celender, Great Neck Plaza Trustees Gerald Schneiderman and Pamela Marksheid, North Hempstead Town Councilwoman Lee Seeman, the Great Neck Chamber of Commerce president, Scott Zimmerman, Great Neck Village Justice Mark Birnbaum and a commercial real estate agent and Great Neck Plaza Business Improvement District board member, Peter Andreasian.