Giuseppe Spadafora opened a side door of his white Ford bus, spread a light blue carpet on a sidewalk near McCarren Park in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and placed a small wooden sandwich board next to it reading “Free Tea.”

Curious passers-by approached. One woman asked about the purpose of the vehicle; Mr. Spadafora’s traveling partner, Ally Rugge, replied that it was “a mobile teahouse.” The woman promised to return after she finished meditating. A second woman entered, saying to a friend, “This is what my mother warned me never to do.”

Inside the bus on Sunday afternoon, the woman, Arielle Swernoff, 23, of Williamsburg, and her friend, Patrick Rheaume, 33, of Park Slope, accepted the cups of genmaicha tea offered them and embarked on a discussion that included references to the small towns of western Massachusetts, where Mr. Rheaume once worked, and the story of how he became friends with Ms. Swernoff while sharing a can of beer during a train ride in New Jersey.