The quest for a reception site has moved away from the Willamette river and into downtown Portland. The Red Star Tavern is the restaurant associated with the Hotel Monaco which is a boutique hotel fashioned loosely on an "art for everybody" theme. Apparently local art is featured in the rooms, as well as significant pieces on each floor and in the lobby (but, as always, what defines "significant" varies significantly from person to person...). Personally, my favorite piece of art was the lobby dog, an actual live golden retriever named "Art". As Art does live within the hotel, this should satisfy the hotel requirements, but I guess Portland wanted to go above and beyond and feature some, shall we say, "unique" art elsewhere.
Whereas the lobby of the hotel is almost obnoxiously bright, the restaurant is more traditionally covered in dark red and gold colors with mahogany wood. We had an enjoyable dinner there with our friends Sylvia and Paul, allowing us to sample a wider variety of food. The house walnut bread is a welcome and unique item that is deliciously salty and a welcome change from traditional baguettes or focaccia. Paul ordered some jalepeno cornbread with honey butter that came out in a little cast iron skillet. Very cute. Our main meals were all good and distinct from each other -- we enjoyed rabbit, sea scallops with relish, kobe beef and ahi tuna and oxtail barbecue. All of the food was excellent, but at nearly twice the price of a dish at Aquariva for similar sized portions. Too full for dessert, we took a look around the hotel and the reception space.
The reception space at the Red Star Tavern is well appointed, and features one smaller area elevated two or three steps above the larger dining area. There is a handsome bar on the upper area which I am sure would be lovely for our purposes. Looking at the space, squeezing 60 people in may be a bit tight, but the room can apparently hold 90 so I shouldn't worry. Pictures can be found at http://www.monaco-portland.com/monpmn_photo.html#.
Ah, but the downside!! Portland is in the midst of a huge transit mall remodeling. Additionally, there are other construction projects that litter the downtown area, making driving and parking an especially annoying task during the best of times. Sadly, the construction nearest to the Red Star Tavern may be continuing past October 2008. Even if the transit mall is completed by our wedding, parking will be limited and expensive - street meters run at $1.25 per hour until 7PM, and garages are $8 - 12 dollars per day. *sigh* If only they'd spend some more time building parking garages and fewer unnecessary condos!
