I’m not sure I get the name of the Hi-Lo Hotel. Online the hotel, from Marriott’s “Autograph Collection,” is billed in a half-assed buzzword mélange as being “crafted” as Portland’s “most relevant luxury destination,” with “Portland luxury” defined as “effortless, organic modern.” The Hi-Lo strives to represent Oregon’s “raw and refined” landscape.
The hotel’s restaurant is called Alto Bajo, more or less Spanish for Hi Lo, but otherwise branded separately from the above Marriott bullshit. It’s a “modern Mexican” menu from Chicago chef Chip Barnes with an assist from Oaxacan-American superchef Iliana de la Vega, though the two non-Northwesterners do an admirable job focusing the menu on local ingredients.
With a menu that changes as frequently as this one, you’re bound for hits and misses. My first meal at Alto Bajo was brunch—the time of day when Alto Bajo feels most like a hotel restaurant. We chose the wrong things on the menu: chilaquiles ($12)—tortilla chips swimming in salsa, crema, and eggs, unmemorable without some optional additions (we went with boar chorizo, which was a smoky, spicy delight, $4)—and an omelette a la poblana—with a splash of green poblano sauce, served with potatoes and totally dry toast. The $16 omelet’s saving grace was a streak of huitlacoche, a purply-black fungus-infected corn with a sweet, mushroomy flavor. (Huitlacoche is a rarity north of the border and a delicacy south of it, perhaps because in English it’s called “corn smut,” which sounds exceptionally unappetizing.)
Drinks were less disappointing. In the AM, there’s a michelada (beer and spices), but for it to cost $11 and not include any liquor is a shame, and despite a nice, slightly warming freshness, it can’t help but taste of a lost bet. A breakfast margarita never hurt anybody, and Alto Bajo has a few: naturally there are “Alto” (fancy) and “Bajo” (less fancy) versions, but also a purple prickly pear option and a slightly pinker hibiscus one. A house horchata is the base for the rummy Abuela’s Nightcap (A+ name), which, despite its postmeridian moniker, is a great morning drink, all warm cinnamon spice.