Sometime in early September I was thinking it had been too long since Eric and I had gone on a date alone together. We were way overdue, so I decided to ask him on a date. Then I looked at our calendars....let's see there was a fundraiser, a business dinner, a party with our friends, a weekend planned to the beach....our first free weekend was six weeks away! So, I sent Eric an Outlook invite for a date. So, how unromantic is that? Oh, well, it had to be done. So here's what the invite said, "I'd like to ask you on a date. I'm getting this on your calendar before something else comes up. I'll plan everything. All you need to do is show up and have fun. Love, Nancy"
So, I figured I had six weeks to plan some kind of awesome surprise date for Eric. Then...it got busy...the fundraiser, the business dinner, a party, the beach, etc, etc., and before I knew it, it was the week before our date and I had no idea what to do. Eric is always REALLY good at planning dates....and here it was my turn, and I was coming up with nothing.
A few days before our date, we were sitting at the kitchen counter, and he asked what he should wear on the date (since I still hadn't told him what we were doing). I looked up at him, and started bawling. I had nothing! No ideas! What a boring disappointment I am! Eric was so sweet. He smiled and hugged me and suggested we plan something together. He said we worked better as a team and he liked it when we planned things better together anyways (boy was he letting me off easy.)
After some discussion,we decided we'd go downtown and stay the night at the new boutique hotel, the Hotel Modera . We'd heard it was very cool and amazingly affordable with a nice restaurant. We'd have a nice dinner, a good bottle of wine, relax, sleep in the next morning, have a leisurely breakfast and stroll downtown the next day to enjoy the autumn colors. Our date was planned. I was relieved, and looking forward to it.
So, the Hotel Modera it was. http://www.hotelmodera.com/ The hotel used to be, get this, a Day's Inn. I'd been in it when it was a Day's Inn...it was musty, smokey, old, and dingy. The kind of place you'd see a sad old woman drinking a Tom Collins, at noon on a Wednesday, with a cigarette dangling in her mouth, playing video poker in the bar. The place needed help and I couldn't wait to see the transformation.
Arriving at the hotel you pass through an arch that takes you to the entrance courtyard...you leave the hustle and bustle of downtown behind you and enter a cool, hip space with firepits and cozy seating to the left and a modern garden mixing squares of concrete with blocks of plants from the floor, up onto the walls on your right.
Check out the "living" wall.
The lobby was bright and spacious...modern furniture, a patchwork cowhide rug (sounds awful, but looked very cool), and amazing local photography and art. We checked in (uhh, only $107 a night!) and went to our room on the top floor (there are only five floors). The room was small, but made great use of space. I loved the warm orange and brown tones (a bit of a flashback to my grandma's 70's living room minus the owls and mushrooms). The faux fur blanket on the bed made me want to purrrrr.
Don't you just want to sink into that bed!
After setting our things down and looking around a bit, we went down to the restaurant, Nel Centro for dinner. The space fits in nicely with the rest of the hotel...clean and modern with a decidedly Northwest twist. We each ordered a delmonico steak with a mushroom sauce with scalloped potatoes and grilled asparagus....heavenly! Eric was loving the potatoes, and he said to me, "Have you ever made scalloped potatoes for me?" "Nope." I reply. "Then these are the best scalloped potatoes I've ever had"....that made me laugh! The steak dinners were right around $22 each...a bargain, especially when you consider just a steak without any sides at Ruth's Chris runs you $50 easy.
This photo doesn't do the restaurant justice. Trust me, Nel Centro is warm, congenial, cool, and delicious!
After we finished eating, we took the rest of our bottle of wine out into the courtyard and pulled up a couple of chairs next to one of the warm firepits (which have glass "rocks" in the bottom that glow like amber when the fire is lit...nice touch). While sitting around the fire we met two other couples about our age. It was funny, because neither of the couples knew each other but both had been to Powell's earlier in the day (they both had Powell's bags with them), both were from Colorado, both had daughters in school in Portland, and both loved, loved, loved the Hotel Modera....telling us it had been their home away from home whenever they visited their daughter at school.
Relaxing by the firepit in the courtyard.
Yes, we both liked the Hotel Modera. What a transformation! What was once tired and rundown, is now vibrant and hip. It's luxurious but down-to-earth. The former dive is now downtown's most lovable diva!
I LOVE that fireplace!!! What a fun date!
Posted by: Patty | November 01, 2009 at 09:34 AM
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Posted by: Term Paper | February 18, 2010 at 03:10 AM
Its lovely place. I like to enjoy some moments there.
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Posted by: Lessie | July 21, 2010 at 07:50 AM
Amazing hotel to stay
Posted by: resume | October 19, 2010 at 11:26 AM
beautiful lobby and hotel.
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