Best Place to Understand Millennials 2016 | Townshend's Teahouse (OMG! LOL!) | Arts & Culture | Bend

Best Of Central Oregon

Best Place to Understand Millennials

Townshend's Teahouse (OMG! LOL!)

Townshend's Teahouse is a perfect place for Millennial watching, as the youngsters (let's say ages 13-23) have chosen Townshend's as their downtown hangout spot. Young love is sparked and snuffed out, old friendships are rekindled and Pokemons are most seriously hunted.

Older generations complain the Millennials are a bunch of leftist pinko softies who care more about being politically correct than hardening themselves for a rough and unfeeling world. That's crap, but who are we to judge? The experts are the Townshend's Tea Tenders: Those few who are surrounded by the whippersnappers every day.

"When they're ordering, they're on their cell phone most of the time and don't really acknowledge you...almost like you're a vending machine," says manager Carissa Glenn.

Tea Tender Lily Scott says, "There's a portion that's considerate and artsy. Very sweet, kind and gracious. You find notes they leave all over the teahouse that are kind of profound. They have this underlying beautiful side to them that they don't show because they want to be like everybody else."

I asked Tea Tender Sahara Snow (herself a millennial) how she would describe the teahouse in only emojis: "Oh God. One would be 😳 . Definitely 💩 , throw that in there. And a 😊 . One of the good ones."

The lesson: Millennials are like the rest of us: sometimes stressed and poopy, but underneath there's a smiley face.

Townshend's Teahouse

835 NW Bond St., Bend

541-312-2001