This place is packed. Finding a seat this Saturday afternoon was like finding a parking spot at Big Lots on Black Friday. Nonetheless, I sit in an orange armchair that lets me rock back and forth as I press my feet to the floor. The seat next to me, in which a gruff, scarf-clad gentleman reads his book, is of the same design. He rocks too, but with more subtlety than I. A glass mug sits atop the end-table on my left, the last dregs of my Irish Breakfast tea pooled at the bottom.
Townshend’s Teahouse is located at 41 West Broadway in Downtown Eugene, down the street from the Jazz Station (hint hint, a Sunday night of jazz and tea makes a classy Sunday night, indeed). Open from 9am to 10pm daily, the Teahouse offers “100+ loose leaf teas as well as all seven flavors of Brew Dr. Kombucha.” The hours make Townshend’s accessible for early birds and night owls alike; the variety of teas is enough to keep a brew aficionado busy for days.
The tea “smells so good,” I hear a girl to my left say. Along with smelling good, the tea tastes delicious. I nurse an Irish Breakfast tea, which is complemented by milk and honey as per the menu’s advice. The milk/honey combination was brought out in a small metal bell creamer. The tea and milk arrived surprisingly fast, about ten minutes, considering how full the Teahouse is.
At Townshend’s Bend location (Townshend’s has five: Eugene, OR; Bend, OR; two in Portland, OR; and Bozeman, MT [!?]) the crowd consists of mostly of high-school students, whereas in Eugene, college- and working-age folks make up the patrons. When I live in Bend over the summer, I avoid Townshend’s for this reason. Here in Eugene, the demographic is more suited to a college-aged writer looking to pass a few hours in obscurity.
While this place is packed, the atmosphere is still conducive to studying, reading, or simply getting lost in thought. I see so many Macs around that I think I’m in an Apple orchard (shoutout to Alexis Sanchez for that gem of a joke). The gruff guy next to me reads Game of Thrones. More than a few times I have stopped writing, in order to take in the music. A Passenger album plays in the background. From “Let Her Go” to “All the Little Lights,” Rosenburg’s voice cascades over the cloth sofas, shelves of teas, and herbal remedies.
The Distracted Duck 