1,400 Teapots (Closed)
Brookings, Oregon
Came for the 1,400 teapots, but wish we'd held off to eat breakfast here as well. The Tea Room Cafe is a well-reviewed local restaurant that takes its decor seriously. The walls are covered with doily-fringed shelves filled with hundreds of eclectic teapots.
Three-deck elephant teapot.
The original owner started teapot acquisition 40 years ago, though sold the business after a few years. The second owner, through subsequent decades, grew the collection massively, and handed the reins to a third owner in November 2015.
The current owner, Barbara, still steeping in the Tea Room tradition, carries on with longtime employees, such as Dee, who told us patrons continue to bring in teapots to donate.
There may be 1,400 total, or somewhat less, since the last owner took the rarest old ones with her. The porcelain wonders are everywhere -- they run along the window sills and ceiling. We asked Barbara and Dee to point out the weirder ones, and were directed to marvel at a corn teapot, and a three-decker elephant teapot.
The Teapotmobile.
Out in the parking lot sits the Teapot-mobile, a van modified to look like a teapot. Sort of. The spout on the hood is feeble, and the top knob was blown off in a wind storm and has yet to be replaced. The Teapotmobile may not be drivable any more, and it touts "Over 1,200 tea pots!" so it may need some re-lettering.
But damn, breakfast looked pretty good.
