Our Civic Pride series centers on some American cities that have nothing to be ashamed of. They are global hubs of culture, cuisine, and quintessential hotels. Part two puts us in Portland.
Skip down to the hotels. Or, see our Civic Pride lists for Chicago and Washington DC.
Lately it’s become de rigueur to accuse certain American cities of being hellish war zones. Our hometown, New York City, was an early and ongoing target of these fabrications. All cities have their issues, of course — it’s the nature of so many people living in such close quarters — but those issues are the price we gladly pay for easy exposure to a world’s worth of different lifestyles and traditions.
If that’s not for you, that’s fine. All New Yorkers also yearn to look up from the kitchen sink and see fields of lavender and a Bambi or three. I regularly pine for the desert, and grew up in a wooded suburb, happily exploring the forest. I took a bus to school, which was a blast, but always wished I lived close enough to take a bike. My daughter, who’s in second grade now, walks to school, only a couple blocks, and along the way we see dozens of her friends and their families. We often say it’s like living on Sesame Street, brownstones and all.
When I was on that school bus, wishing I was on my bike, I never would’ve thought my child would do me one better, in Brooklyn of all places. We don’t live in fear. We’re not surrounded by crime and riot. You can take the subway in and out of Manhattan every day and not have a single inconvenience caused by anything other than an outdated signal system. Ironically, the only thing that worries me about my daughter eventually walking the city on her own is that indelible symbol of the suburbs: the car. The streets are safe. Crossing them, on the other hand, requires vigilance.
Our Civic Pride series looks at essential hotels in great American cities, starting with Chicago, Portland, and DC. We have colleagues and close friends in these places, and like us in New York, mostly they’re just bummed by the undeserved negative attention they’re receiving. And it goes without saying that none of this is good for the tourism industries. In fact, one Portland hotel sent an email recently asking that people not be fooled by the headlines, confirming that the city is alive and well and remains “radically friendly, wildly creative, and unapologetically itself.”
That’s a lot to be proud of.
Jupiter Hotel
Southeast — Portland, OR, USA
The Jupiter, a refurbished mid-century motel, is visually appealing, stylishly designed, and eminently livable; luxury, however, is not part of the program. Get your head around this idea and you’re in for a good time. The Jupiter is aimed at young, creative types, an audience that’s interested in design and in thoughtful and quirky hotels, but that would feel underdressed in a high-gloss hotel like one of Ian Schrager’s, for example.
Jupiter NEXT
Southeast — Portland, OR, USA
Unlike its counterpart across the street, Jupiter NEXT is an unapologetically contemporary structure. Its height affords it unparalleled views of the city, especially in its west-facing rooms, and its modern construction allows for generous floor plans and rooms that are as luxurious as they are stylish. And we do mean stylish. Though it’s a move upmarket, Jupiter NEXT hasn’t lost touch with its hip origins.
The Hoxton, Portland
Chinatown — Portland, OR, USA
The Hoxton, Portland, set just outside the Chinatown Gateway, adapts the brand’s post-industrial, London-born aesthetic to a century-old building, but it’s not a copy of the Shoreditch original — here the Hoxton group’s in-house design studio took their inspiration from the Northwest modernist movement of the Sixties and Seventies.
The Society Hotel
Chinatown — Portland, OR, USA
A 19th-century sailors’ hostel in Portland’s Chinatown finds new life as a low-frills, high-style boutique hotel, one that’s meant to fill a gap at the low-budget end of the market. Some of the Society Hotel’s rooms remain hostel-style, while others are private but share bathrooms, and the best ones are fully en-suite. There’s a café and bar that does triple duty as a restaurant, as well as a rooftop deck.
Hotel Grand Stark
Central Eastside — Portland, OR, USA
Portland’s creative culture and youthful character aren’t always obvious in its downtown hotels. Across the river, though, in one of southeast Portland’s most rapidly up-and-coming corners, is a hotel that puts its guests right in the thick of it. Hotel Grand Stark is from Palisociety, whose hotels are known for two things: their careful tailoring to their settings, and their lively, convivial atmosphere.
Woodlark
Downtown — Portland, OR, USA
Portland may be better known in the popular imagination for its hip eccentricity, but it can also do urban elegance with the best of them. Woodlark is a perfect illustration, a pair of historic buildings (one the 1920s-vintage Hotel Cornelius) combined into a single hotel, one that effortlessly embodies Portland’s stylish, cosmopolitan side.
Sentinel, A Provenance Hotel
Downtown — Portland, OR, USA
The Sentinel is a splendid Arts and Crafts hotel with a bit of a Lewis and Clark fixation; murals depicting the explorers adorn the lobby walls, alongside mahogany paneling and rich leather furniture. The décor is so well done it’s hard to believe it’s a restoration — the hotel was just a shadow of its 1909 glory, rescued from dilapidation in the Nineties, the west wing converted into the new lobby in 2004.
The Nines
Downtown — Portland, OR, USA
Portland may be better known for its homespun, folksy charm, its artisanal espresso and one-speed bicycles — but with The Nines, there’s finally a chic luxury option. The name is no accident: “dressed to the nines” isn’t a phrase you hear often enough around Oregon, but it certainly applies here. The location is classic city-luxe, atop a historic building overlooking Portland’s surprisingly elegant downtown square.
Hotel Lucia
Downtown — Portland, OR, USA
Lucia’s personality comes from a confident and rather grown-up visual identity, some charming and slightly quirky historical architecture, a location in Portland’s increasingly vibrant downtown, and a first-rate collection of black-and-white prints from David Hume Kennerly, a highly regarded local photographer. What brings it together, in the end, is the service: “Make It So” is something of a motto for Hotel Lucia’s staff.
Kimpton Riverplace Hotel
Downtown — Portland, OR, USA
Downtown Portland is surprisingly urban — streetcars, high-rise buildings, the works. But the RiverPlace Hotel’s having none of it. Here the views are of the waterfront park, the marina, the Hawthorne bridge, and the waters of the Willamette River. There’s a bit of a country-house vibe about the place, or a mountain lodge — sans mountains, but with plenty of timber and stone, and a fireplace seemingly around every corner.
Mark Fedeli is the hotel marketing and editorial director for Tablet and Michelin Guide. He’s been with Tablet since 2006, and he thinks you should subscribe to our newsletter.