May 5, 2009
Platter: Machado takes a chance downtown
The Oregonian
Next Week, David Machado, who helped spark downtown's fine dining scene in the 1990s, then pioneered an eastside neighborhood style, returns to the West Side to open Nel Centro (pronounced nell chen-tro). The 115-seat restaurant (plus 55 outdoors) focuses on the twin cuisines of Nice and Genoa, the Riviera cities ruled by the House of Savoy before France and Italy divvied up the coast.
It took David Machado several passes to see the potential for a restaurant at the Hotel Modera, a new boutique hotel near Portland State University. The location, left of downtown's center, is largely untested for up market restaurants--the closest are Carafe, Veritable Quandary and Higgins--and there are no other hotels within a few blocks. Add to that a whopping 8,000-square-foot restaurant footprint, which makes for a lot of seats to fill even with 174 hotel rooms under the same roof.
"I pride myself in understanding what a location will become," says Machado, who opened popular Lauro Kitchen on Southeast Division Street when it was dining desert, then spurred the Clinton neighborhood with the contemporary Indian spot Vindalho. "And I just didn't see how it would work."
Then he took a closer look at the nearby Park Blocks, museums and concert halls. He realized the new MAX line runs right in front of the hotel and liked the open feeling of the property, thanks in part to the hotel's swell patio. When Modera's owners came through with an accommodating lease (and shrunk the restaurant space by nearly half), the deal was sealed.
Why two cuisines? "French is tricky," he says, "because it carries so many different meanings and straight Genovese just seemed too narrow. "Uniting two cuisines that came out of the same tradition made a lot of sense. When you come right down to it, Portlanders love this kind of food."
The seasonal, north-Med menu will feature pansotti pasta with walnut sauce; steamed mussels in Pernod and cream; rotisserie leg of lamb with garlic custard; a Swiss chard tart with pine nuts and raisins; and bouillabaisse. Starters and salads run $7-$12, pasta and entrees $14-$24, and bar items around $10. Desserts and baked goods are in the hands of ace pastry chef Lee Posey, who made her name at Pearl Bakery.
Machado, who will serve as culinary director, wrote the menu but hired New Orleans native Paul Hyman as head chef and co-collaborator. Hyman worked at several Big Easy restaurants, including the famed Commander's Palace, and was executive chef at celeb chef Todd English's Bonfire Steakhouse in Boston. "He knows French cooking and he's worked in hotels -- that really mattered," Machado says. "I had to have someone who could do banquets."
It's a dicey proposition to open a high-end spot when hotel occupancy is soft and diners are spending less and staying home. "I understand what the challenges are but I'm hoping the location, design and (my) reputation will be enough," Machado says. "Once we get people in the door, all we need to do is deliver."
