David Machado Restaurants

CONSULTING AND MANAGEMENT

Chef David Machado

David Machado talks about his new Pearl eatery and Portland’s evolving food scene

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The Portland Business Journal‘s Jon Bell talks with restauranteur and chef David Machado. Read the entire September 7, 2017 article is below.

In advance of the opening of his next restaurant, Tanner Creek Tavern, the renowned Portland chef talks Pazzo, Nel Centro and how the affordability issue is starting to shape the local food industry.

David Machado at Tanner Creek Tavern, photo by Portland Business Journal 9.7.17
Tanner Creek Tavern David Machado. After more than 30 years in Portland’s restaurant scene, renowned chef David Machado is ready to open his latest creation, Tanner Creek Tavern in the Pearl

A few years ago, David Machado took his wife and three kids on a trip to San Francisco, a sort of revisiting of the chef’s former stomping grounds. During that trip, the Portland restauranteur’s kids went and saw a few rock shows at a club called Bottom of the Hill, which sits at the base of Potrero Hill.

It was a name and place that Machado knew well: In 1986,, he and his wife, Julie, opened their first restaurant in the same building. It’s name? Bottom of the Hill.

“We were like, ‘Look, kids — That’s the place where Mom and Dad had their first restaurant,’” Machado said.

That Machado’s imprint on San Francisco is still visible, albeit in an altered form, mirrors some of the impact he’s had here in Portland, as well. Born and raised in Massachusetts, Machado made his way west in the mid 1970s seeking “freedom and self-expression” — “The usual suspects, the usual activities,” he said — before attending the California Culinary Academy. He came to Portland in the early 1990s to open Pazzo Ristorante for Kimpton Hotels, and later made big marks with Lauro Kitchen on Southeast Division, the business lunch go-to Nel Centro and, most recently, Altabira City Tavern atop the Eastlund Hotel.

In advance of his latest endeavor, Tanner Creek Tavern, which is set to open in the Pearl District at Northwest 9th and Everett on Sept. 12, Machado talked with the Business Journal Portland’s renowned culinary scene.

Lauro was a pretty big jump for you when it opened on Division in 2002, when there wasn’t much to that street. I honestly leased that space because of the cheap rent. I was looking for a warehousey, high-ceilinged corner space and that’s where I found it. We were the first on the street. Lauro’s idea was to take the food values and the service points of a downtown restaurant and put it in a neighborhood setting. It turned out to be very, very successful.

What about Nel Centro? How did that become such a popular spot? I was terrified, because (2008 and 2009, when Nel Centro opened) were the two worst years of the Recession. I had run big downtown restaurants, so I knew the upside but I also knew the downside. We were at the bottom of the Recession, and my reasoning at the time was that we couldn’t go any lower. We could only go up. I’ve also learned to analyze these deals as to who the potential customers are. A lot of restaurants, they have great food, a great name, great ideas. Those are all important, but I need to know who eventually is going to come and dine there. And what happened at Nel Centro was that the businesspeople came for lunch, then after work, office people came and then arts patrons with tickets to shows came. They all filled it in and made a tremendous business model.

You’ve never had a restaurant in the Pearl District. Why now? I have always been a little bit apprehensive and cautious about the Pearl. I know it’s gone through some starts and stops. I always saw it as a neighborhood that was being laid out and developed before my eyes. I didn’t think it had the cachet of Alberta or Mississippi or Division or an organic, existing neighborhood that’s been retrofitted for re-use. But I don’t feel that way anymore. There’s activity on the street, people coming and going, low crime. It has that as its basis, and we will participate in that.

You opened your first restaurant for Kimpton in Portland more than 30 years ago and have opened several others along the way. What’s different now? I think back then, there were more chains, and now we are very anti-chain. I always look with amusement at large developers who recruit them. It’s like, do yourself a favor and don’t make that deal. Footprints are a lot smaller now, and I think the dining public has really increased its knowledge. Social media has also really changed the landscape dramatically.

Have you seen the affordability issue impact the restaurant business here? We are looking at the contraction of the labor force while we are seeing an expansion of the industry. We are looking at a complete non-sequitur in that restaurants continue to open and leases continue to be signed and people continue to dine, but we are at a low ebb of labor. I don’t think we are where San Francisco is yet, where you have to live out in East Bay or South Bay and take the train or BART to your job because you can’t live close-in. Here, we are still in a roommate situation, but I think we are in the last vestiges of that. We have not definitively moved over to, ‘I have to live in Hillsboro or Gresham in order to work in downtown Portland,’ but we’ll be there soon.

What do you think has been your impact on the Portland food scene? A hell of a lot of cooks have come through the kitchens that I’ve run at places like Red Star, Pazzo, South Park, who are still out there working in the profession. I’ve never been an innovator or, in all humility, a highly creative person. I look more to historical recipes and a faithful duplication of those recipes as they were intended. I think Lauro came at a time of change, with that size dining room and the open kitchen and bar. That is something I think I was instrumental in establishing.

How long has it been since you’ve been a head chef? Today. I’m going over to Altabira to sit down and look at the menu. I’ll never stop. I’m more like editor in chief now, but I’ll never stop. Anybody who says they’re in a kitchen actively in their sixties, as I am, is either a liar or a fool, cause it’s not true. It’s hard work. It’s a construction job with knives and fire.

David Machado

Title: Chef and restaurant owner
Current restaurants: Nel Centro, Altabira, Citizen Baker
Next restaurant: Tanner Creek Tavern inside the Pearl District Hampton Inn & Suites.
Instrument: Guitar
Board member: PDX Jazz
President: Third Angle New Music

David Machado contributes to discussion on PDX dining scene. Oregon Business Magazine / Oct 2016

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Hannah Wallace of the Oregon Business Magazine talks with Chef David Machado and others about the Portland dining scene and why everyone you know is eating out. Read what Chef Machado has to say below.

Generation Diner

Oregon Business Magazine / October edition
September 23, 2016
Written by Hannah Wallace

from the Oregon Business Magazine, Oct. 2016
from the Oregon Business Magazine, Oct. 2016

“The Portland dining public is way more sophisticated today than it was 25 years ago,” observes longtime Portland chef David Machado, whose former restaurants Lauro Kitchen and Vindalho were the first to colonize Southeast Division (in 2003 and 2005, respectively). Today, at his two restaurants Nel Centro and Altabira City Tavern, he sees chiefly two main demographics: boomers and millennials.

“Those boomers have traveled. They’ve had that pasta that you serve on the menu — they’ve had it in Italy,” Machado notes. Many of these boomers have also taken cooking classes and watch more than one cooking show, he says. Portland millennials, too, are well traveled; they’ve been to all the latest restaurants in New York and San Francisco, and they want to stay on top of the latest spots in their hometown, too.

“They are college educated, have a good job, are married — or not. But they’re experimenting with food, ordering hand made cocktails and wines.” Add these two groups together and you get a group of curious, adventurous eaters who want to eat out all the time.

“Everyone is just so much damn smarter about food,” says Machado. On-demand and sharing economy trends are also helping fuel the frenzy; today, when people want food, they want it now. Restaurants — co-eating venues, as collaborative economists might say — fit the bill.

There’s no authoritative statistic on which demographics eat out the most in Portland. But Zach Hull, vice president of business development at Boulevard — the software company that designed Chew, Kurt Huffman’s new restaurant loyalty app — says almost 50% of Chew’s 6,000 active users are between the ages of 25 and 35 (25% are in the 35 to 45 age group).

It doesn’t hurt that the price of eating out at a nice restaurant (or food cart) is still relatively affordable in Portland, when compared to other major American cities. “The price that you pay for a meal, an entree in a restaurant today, is the same or less than you did 10 or so years ago,” says Machado. In Portland, he adds, there are certain benchmarks you can’t exceed.

“Portlanders don’t like to spend more than $30 on an entree, or $14 or $15 on an appetizer.”

You can read the entire Oregon Business Magazine article here.

Portland Tribune interviews David Machado — Patios and more

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“When it comes to location scouting, some say Machado has a crystal ball for establishing the next hot spot — on Southeast Division, in the Lloyd District and in Nel Centro’s part of downtown before they all saw their Renaissance.

He’s constantly reflecting on the past and looking ahead.”

Bread & Brew: Enjoy the views, brews from Altabira’s patio

Portland Tribune logo
 

June 8, 2016
by Jennifer Anderson

Nel Centro, David Machado’s other restaurant, also has an outdoor vibe
Nel Centro patio, photo — John Valls
The inviting patios at downtown’s Nel Centro (above) and Lloyd District’s Altabira City Tavern have been part of the success formula for owner David Machado.

It’s patio season for restaurants, and Altabira City Tavern boasts one of the city’s best.

Smack dab in the middle of the busy Lloyd District with views of the city skyline from six stories up, the covered space outside the main restaurant at the Hotel Eastlund — with heaters, sofas and a swanky urban vibe — has grown into a hotspot for Rose Quarter crowds, business people and happy hour groupies alike.

But David Machado never expected the patio to be a “scene,” as he puts it.

As owner of Altabira — which marks its first birthday this month — he built the patio simply as an extension of the dining room, which serves 16 local beers on tap and a beer-forward, locally sourced, seasonal menu.

However, “when that patio unveiled itself last summer, it kind of shocked us,” the 61-year-old restaurateur says. “People would sit on the couch with their martinis, tapping at their social media. (We thought) what if it flips into a drinking scene and the food part goes away? It got a little concerning.”

In other words, the crowds came out — en masse — for Portland’s newest patio, as we are prone to do.

And it got rowdy. But then it calmed down.

photo: David Machado, owner of Nel Centro and Altabira
It’s going to be nice weather for awhile, meaning David Machado, owner of Nel Centro and Altabira, will be hosting patrons on patios.

And now as it heats up again, Machado is bracing for patio season at Altabira and his other restaurant, Nel Centro, located downtown at the Hotel Modera.

Both are large restaurants, close to 300 seats apiece, serving a specific niche of tourists and locals alike, which Machado is keenly aware of.

“We’re an enigma; we’re not a hotel restaurant,” he says. “We just happen to lease space in a hotel, which is a nice safety net.”

At Nel Centro — which just celebrated its seventh birthday — the patio is warm, inviting and feels like someone’s backyard party.

A major part of the demographic are arts patrons coming downtown for a show; in fact they often run cocktails based on an opera or ballet title, like a “Magic Flute” procecco and “Sweeney Todd” bourbon drink.

With a relaxed vibe and wine-forward, Euro-centric menu, it turns into a different beast in the summertime when everyone’s hankering for that perfect happy hour experience.

“People are the most aggressive and dogged about access into the patio,” Machado says. “They want sunshine; they want to feel nice; they want their food and beverages at a discounted price. It pushes us at both places.”

In fact Nel Centro first opened without a happy hour, but started one six months later due customer demands.

Luckily, Machado takes the patio as a serious challenge. “We’re trying to provide real service all the way through,” he says. “The patios — they’re a gift and a curse.”

With deep roots in Portland’s restaurant world, Machado has seen what works, and what doesn’t.

In addition to Altabira and Nel Centro, he owns Citizen Baker, the street-level bakery and cafe next to the Hotel Eastlund that also turns one this month.

But this isn’t his first rodeo. With roots in San Francisco’s food community in the 1980s, Machado moved to Portland in the early 1990s and opened several beloved restaurants that have since closed, including Pazzo Ristorante, Lauro Kitchen, Vindahlo, and recently The Heathman Restaurant.

He also opened Southpark Seafood Grill, which just reopened after a major renovation.

In 2009, he was the Oregon Restaurant Association’s Restaurateur of the Year, and he’s been a past board member of the Portland Farmers Market, International Pinot Noir Celebration, Share Our Strength, Travel Portland and the Portland Jazz Festival, as well as being active in numerous other organizations.

As he looks toward retirement, he has a lot of dreams.

As a guitarist and huge music fan, “I want to be the first person who does food and music successfully,” he says. “Nobody’s done that. That’s always simmering.”

Also, he’s a heavy traveler, visiting Europe every six months with different friends and family members, including Julie, his wife and restaurant partner of 31 years.

Not surprisingly, the food is a huge part of his travels: “Everything has to be scripted. I can’t go anywhere without knowing where I’m having lunch and dinner.”

So what does it take to run a successful restaurant in Portland?

Machado says humility is key: “I could make a deal next week, open a restaurant and go out of business in the next six months. Anyone who doesn’t believe that is a damn fool.”

When it comes to location scouting, some say Machado has a crystal ball for establishing the next hot spot — on Southeast Division, in the Lloyd District and in Nel Centro’s part of downtown before they all saw their Renaissance.

He’s constantly reflecting on the past and looking ahead.

As Baby Boomers age, Millennials globetrot and social media levels the playing field about food knowledge, Machado has seen the rise of food trucks, local artisans, pop-up dinners and what he calls the “rebel restaurants,” with their farm-dug beets and half-hogs broken down in the kitchen that morning.

As he looks to the future, Machado hopes that Portland’s gentrifying inner city doesn’t lead to such a rent increase that young chef/owners are priced out.

The low barrier to entry “has made us a great food city over the last 20 years,” he says.

Michelle Glass, who’s worked as Nel Centro’s general manager since it opened, says she appreciates how Machado is “never needing to be part of the cool kids, just focusing on good food and drinks, on what people are looking for without chasing the latest trend.”

Now that new hotels, restaurants and businesses will soon pop up all around Altabira in the Lloyd District, Machado couldn’t be happier. But he’s not resting on his laurels.

“We have to execute,” he says. “I’m not driven by money, fame or power. I can care less. If the restaurant’s full, I’m happy.”

Check it out:

• Altabira, 1021 N.E. Grand Ave., www.altabira.com

• Nel Centro, 1408 S.W. Sixth Ave., www.nelcentro.com

@jenmomanderson

Read the article on the Portland Tribune.

Portland Monthly Inteviews David Machado

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The Portland food pro on his new Hotel Eastlund eateries, beer, and why hotels love chefs.
By Kelly Clarke

Owner David Machado with Cara Powell, executive chef, pastry chef Natalie Harkness. photo by Whitney Price
Image: Whitney Price — Altabira and Citizen Baker owner David Machado with Cara Powell, the executive chef of both restaurants, and Citizen pastry chef Natalie Harkness.

For three decades now, David Machado has been building and running large-scale food operations that strike a balance between serving as a home away from home for travelers and a destination for locals.

He’s best known as the man behind Hotel Modera’s successful pre-theater haunt Nel Centro; others trade memories of drinks at his Southpark wine bar or Italian grub at Pazzo, the venerable downtown fine diner he built and ran for Hotel Vintage Plaza in the 1990s (just one of six Kimpton properties he launched). And longtimers still get positively weepy reminiscing over the chef’s independent project, Lauro Mediterranean Kitchen, the neighborhood bistro that made SE Division Street a destination before Pok Pok charcoal-fired its first game hen.

His latest salvo is the sky-high beer-centric restaurant Altabira City Tavern and smaller Citizen Baker cafe, a double-barreled blast for the Modera team’s new Hotel Eastlund, located right across the street the Oregon Convention Center. The two eateries may help transform the rapidly changing Lloyd District from a fast food wasteland to a chic dining go-to. On the eve of Altabira’s debut, we asked the food insider about beer, bread, and why a chef can be a hotel’s best friend.

1. YOU’VE BEEN IN THE HOTEL FOOD GAME FOR YEARS. WHAT DO ALTABIRA AND CITIZEN BAKER BRING TO THE TABLE?

With Altabira, I wanted to move out of the euro-centric, wine-based Mediterranean thing I’ve been doing for years. Every time there’s beer, for the most part, it’s in a brewpub or sports bar setting—very burly or clubby. What about a real restaurant that does dinner and a nice job with the menu, creative and fresh, but that aligns with beer? We’re working with dishes from some traditional beer cultures—England, Belgium, Germany—you can’t not do that. Pork schnitzel, a rabbit pot pie, smoked brisket…homey stuff that goes with beer and has connection with beer culture. Also, charcuterie—pate and rilletes, duck liver mousse. I’ve had to caution the kitchen about sugar and salt. It’s easy to start salting and curing and brining everything and soon enough everything becomes a ham! I’m trying to strike a balance.

We’ve gone as micro as we could on our 16 taps: Commons, Coalition, Breakside….We didn’t do any national brands, didn’t even do the regional brands that made Portland famous. We tried to choose producers in NE and SE Portland; operations that are around [the hotel]. There’s some people doing incredible work in beer right now—the balance and quality of the beers, making old recipes contemporary. My model customer knows some things about food, about beer and wine, and is traveled and educated. But when it comes to these young people making beer in Portland that I have on tap, they’ll be, “I just didn’t know.”

2. WHAT ABOUT CITIZEN BAKER?

I hadn’t opened a cafe since Pazzoria in 1994 or ’95. And I felt that if we were gonna do a café, we might as well do everything from the ground up—baguette, levain, beer bread, focaccia… It’s a tight program, we’re doing five or six things really well and we’ll leave it at that. Our pastry chef Natalie Harkness’ work is incredible—the apple strudel; her strawberry rhubarb hand pie. It’s tough to kick off an artisan baking program, but we got the starters right and figured the ovens out already. A bakery is very much a live operation; it’s a whole different world.

3. WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN OPENING A NEIGHBORHOOD AND A HOTEL RESTAURANT?

They are completely different experiences—the lifestyle, who comes in and eats there. At Lauro, we came in as fundamentalists: we cooked what we wanted, said hi to everybody, and then went home. When you get in these bigger situations, you have to think of travelers, business people, people going to shows and sporting events…it’s a different model.

When the Modera owners came to me in 2008 to open Nel Centro, they had some criteria: they wanted a local chef that could come in and operate as a draw from the community. They wanted more than a service for guests, they wanted to create a destination for the city. That’s becoming more and more common. It’s often said that a hotel is a very profitable capitalist model except for food and beverage. But we’re in a cycle where savvy hoteliers are looking for independents [chef-operators] to lure in because a hotel is enhanced by the chef. That’s a big shift.

4. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR NEW NEIGHBORHOOD?

Hotel Eastlund is in a neighborhood that’s never had any fresh or real food—just formulaic chains. Having to eat here for the last two months while overseeing restaurant construction has been brutal—it’s just Red Robin and Denny’s; remnants from the Portland’s old Highway 99 of 30 years ago. But now, the whole neighborhood is in this massive state of flux. There was no master plan, it just happened that we got in right before all this major development. I hope it all works out; that we did the right thing. That saying is true: opening a restaurant is like birthing a baby, you say you’ll never do it again. And then you do.

The Lloyd District’s new hotel grand opening draws a grand

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June 16, 2015, 10:55am PDT
Jon Bell
Portland Business Journal

Altabira City Tavern ballroom, photo by Andrea Lonas
A wide wall of windows lets guests take in expansive Rose City views. photo by Andrea Lonas

There was music and dancing, food and drinks. There were sunny, sweeping views of downtown Portland and the West Hills.

And there were close to a thousand people enjoying it all.

The Hotel Eastlund, a former Red Lion hotel in the Lloyd District that underwent a $15 million remodel, officially opened its new doors last Wednesday evening with a festive grand opening party. The event included a ceremonial ribbon cutting, appetizers and drinks from chef David Machado, who has two restaurants in the new hotel, and musical entertainment from a few different acts, including U.K. soul singer Andy Abraham.

The reborn hotel is a project of Grand Ventures Hotel LLC, a subsidiary of Seattle’s Posh Ventures. The developer was also behind the Hotel Modera, a once-rundown hotel at Southwest Clay Street reborn as a modern boutique hotel, much as the Hotel Eastlund has been.

Click through the gallery for a look at the Hotel Eastlund’s grand opening soiree.

Look Inside Altabira, Chef David Machado’s Beery Lloyd District Restaurant, Now Officially Open

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pdxEater
by Chad Walsh
June 15, 2015

Altabira City Tavern, photo by dina avila, pdxeater
Altabira City Tavern, photo by Dina Avila, pdxEater

The beer-centric rooftop restaurant features 16 all-Oregon-brewed beer taps and a 103-seat patio with sweeping views of downtown and the West Hills.

Altabira, the new beer-forward restaurant perched atop the Lloyd District’s newly christened Hotel Eastlund (née, the old Red Lion Hotel) officially opens for business today.

Today’s opening follows the opening of Citizen Baker, Nel Centro Chef David Machado’s artisan bakery-breakfast-and-lunch spot, which opened on the Eastlund’s ground floor on the first of the month.

Altabira’s design takes advantage of of a couple of natural amenities: a view of downtown and the West Hills and, via plenty of floor-to-ceiling windows, all the natural light a restaurateur could hope for.

If you include the bar, the dining room seats nearly 100 guests—a number that more than doubles if you consider Altabira’s 103-seat open-air rooftop patio, complete with fire pits for when the weather turns cold.

As fas as drinks and eats go, expect 16 taps, all of which are dedicated to Oregon beers, as well as dishes like beef tartare, braised rabbit and vegetable pie, pork cutlets with potato-arugula salads and sides like onion rings served with green goddess dressing.

Altabira City Tavern: 1021 NE Grand Ave., (503) 963-3600, Hours: Lunch, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Monday through Friday; Tavern, 2:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday, 2:30 p.m. to midnight on Fridays, 4 p.m. to midnight on Saturdays and 4 to 10 p.m. on Sundays; Dinner, 5 to 9 p.m., Monday through Thursday, 5 to 10 pm., Fridays and Saturdays, 4 to 9 p.m., on Sundays

All photos by Dina Avila

Read the article and view more images on pdxEater.

The Oregonian: Lloyd District Rising with Hotel Eastlund and David Machado

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Former Red Lion Hotel in the Lloyd District to reopen as boutique Hotel Eastlund

Thursday, May 28, 2015 at 5:00 AM
By Elliot Njus
The Oregonian/OregonLive

Chef David Machado, Altabira City Tavern
Restauranteur David Machado will operate two eateries at the Hotel Eastlund.


When Seattle-based Grand Ventures Hotel bought the Lloyd District’s Red Lion Hotel in 2013 and launched a major renovation, it was one of a few scattered examples of private reinvestment in the eastside district.

As the hotel reopens Monday as the Hotel Eastlund, fresh from a $15 million renovation that took the building down to its bones, it’s in a district that could have thousands of new residents within a few years.

Meanwhile, the Lloyd Center mall is in the middle of its own $50 million renovation. And Metro is well on its way to landing a large hotel near its Oregon Convention Center, which the regional government says will help drum up new business both for the convention center and nearby hotels.

“When we started, we were not really aware of the breadth of development in the district,” said restaurateur David Machado, who will operate two eateries in the new hotel. “What’s happened around us was very surprising.”

Grand Ventures, hoping to duplicate its success in turning around the downtown Hotel Modera, bought the Lloyd District hotel in 2013 for $12.5 million. As at the downtown hotel, previously a Days Inn, they aimed to create a destination not only for travelers, but also nearby workers and residents.

The Lloyd District hotel opened as the Cosmopolitan Motor Hotel which, as its name suggests, was built for guests coming and going by car. For people walking by or traveling by transit, it might as well have been a fortress.

So a design by Holst Architecture of Portland aimed to turn the hotel inside-out, adding pedestrian access from all sides. Much of the lobby is space once occupied by an auto ramp. Space formerly used for guests-only breakfast will now be Citizen Baker, Machado’s bakery-cafe and wine bar that will be open to the public that will also cater meetings at the hotel and provide room service.

The hotel’s upper floors were largely gutted as well, necessitated by the presence of mold, asbestos and lead paint, Grand Ventures partner Alan Battersby said.

The top floor will house a 5,300-square-foot ballroom, small meeting rooms and Machado’s Altabira City Tavern, which replaces the Red Lion’s Windows Skyroom and Lounge. That restaurant and Citizen Baker are expected to open later in June.

— Elliot Njus

Read the article on OregonLive. Be sure and look at the slideshow!

First View Atop the Hotel Eastlund from Altabira City Tavern — GoLocalPDX

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First View Atop The Eastlund Hotel

Friday, April 10, 2015
Byron Beck, GoLocalPDX Features Editor

Photo from Altabira City Tavern by Byron Beck of GoLocalPDX
The view featured here is from inside the Eastlund’s (currently under construction) Altabira City Tavern, helmed by acclaimed local chef David Machado. Photo by Byron Beck.
In May of 2015 Hotel Eastlund will be opening their doors for the first time. Here’s a look at the space in progress. The view featured here is from inside the Altabira City Tavern, helmed by acclaimed local chef David Machado. Portland’s newest boutique hotel will feature rooftop dining, floor-to-ceiling windows, a spacious work-friendly lobby, and a beautiful view of the Portland skyline.

The first contemporary, luxury boutique hotel of its kind on Portland’s Eastside, it is developed by Grand Ventures Eastlund Hotel, LLC, who also developed the renowned Hotel Modera in Portland, Ore., as well as Hotel Andra and Hotel Deca in Seattle.

Hotel Eastlund is adjacent to the Oregon Convention Center, Moda Center, Veterans Memorial Coliseum and the Central Eastside’s creative hub. The hotel will offer easy access to both of the cities rail lines — the Portland streetcar and MAX Light rail. Hotel Eastlund, with its mid-century inspired design, features 168 rooms and suites, a flexible ballroom with floor-to-ceiling windows, two executive boardrooms and two private dining rooms overlooking downtown Portland.

The downtown skyline comes to life with the views from these outstanding venues. The rooftop restaurant and bar, Altabira City Tavern by celebrated chef David Machado, offers American cuisine with a beer-centric menu and Citizen Baker, adjacent to the lobby, is both a casual daytime café and evening wine bar.

Altabira City Tavern offers regional American cuisine focused on updated classic dishes with 16 taps of local craft beers, select Northwest wines and locally distilled spirits. The Tavern is open for lunch and dinner in a modern setting with large floor-to-ceiling windows with sweeping views of Portland’s downtown skyline and inner eastside. The dining room seats 60, the indoor bar area seats 76 and the expansive outdoor rooftop patio – with windbreaks, heaters and three fire pits with lounge seating — accommodates 103.

Citizen Baker is a locally owned, urban bakery/café located adjacent to the hotel’s mid-century modern lobby. The artisan bakery and gourmet coffee bar serves freshly baked artisan breads, pastries, soups, fresh salads and sandwiches as well as single origin coffee from Ristretto Roasters. During happy hour, the bakery transforms into a cozy and casual wine bar with local wine and beer on tap.

Hotel Eastlund is located, 1021 NE Grand Ave, Portland, Oregon 97232.

Read the article on GoLocalPDX.

Altabira City Tavern
Citizen Baker
Hotel Eastlund