Grant for example having drink in dull surroundings (5,3)

'dull surroundings' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I can't tell whether this works.

'grant for example having drink' is the wordplay.
'grant for example' becomes 'staid' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'having' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'drink' becomes 'tea' (tea is a drink).
'staid' going around 'tea' is 'STATE AID'.

'in' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?