“Welcome to TheOrenco, Hillsboro, Oregon’s 10-room boutique luxury hotel. TheOrenco is ideally situated within the vibrant and growing work-live-play community of Orenco Station in Hillsboro, OR. They offer guests calm, comfortable, and privacy-oriented accommodations not found at the typical corporate chains.”
“Guests appreciate their nontraditional European lodging format, their brownstone architecture and the wide variety of unique restaurants, breweries and shops available within a short walking distance of their front door. The included morning breakfast is at the nearby Tous Les Jours (French-Asian artisan bakery), a local institution where all the tempting pastries (sweet & savory) and breads are baked fresh, daily”
“TheOrenco includes all the amenities a savvy business traveler or family on the go seeks when choosing lodging, including contactless check-in, fast Wi-Fi, comfortable seating, free lobby snacks, in-room coffee, private courtyards (select rooms), and even gear to enjoy the local area, like pickleball paddles and bicycles. Their knowledgeable and dedicated staff ensures that all guests have a comfortable, relaxing stay with everything they need in spotless rooms.”
“TheOrenco is a short walk away from the TriMet MAX stop at Orenco (Portland’s efficient light rail system), which provides easy access to nearby communities and Portland International Airport (PDX).”
The hospitable (husband & wife) owners of TheOrenco, Margie Waltz and Richard Lyons, join us providing an overview of the accommodating details.
Hey there, it's Jet Tila, the emeritus host of the SoCal Restaurant Show and judge on Food Network's Cutthroat Kitchen with Alton Brown. You're listening to the very best in Food 411 on AM830 KLAA. And welcome back. It is the Labor Day weekend holiday version of the SoCal Restaurant Show, and we're here with you every Saturday morning from 10 AM until 12 noon, right here on AM830 KLAA, the home of Angels Baseball 2024. And you can also catch us on the AM830 Angels app. And the halos are home for this long Labor Day weekend. Tonight is the second game in a three game set with Seattle, and we're looking forward to the halos evening up the series. I'm Andy Harris, the executive producer and co-host of the show. Thanks for sharing part of your holiday weekend with us. We definitely appreciate it. Some are enthusiastically presented each and every week by Melissa's World Radio Produce and West Coast Prime Meets. Earlier in the summer, I was up in Oregon, specifically touring in the Tualatin Valley as the guest of Visit Tualatin Valley, and was very fortunate to stay in a 10 room boutique luxury hotel in Hillsborough, Oregon, called the Orinoco. And one thing I love to do when I am on these familiarity trips, whether it be researching restaurants or wineries or a particular destination and everything they offer, I really like to partake of the smaller boutique hotels that have some local character and flavor to them. And how does one politely say this? Not have the corporate motif that when you're in typically one of the major brand hotels, you don't know whether you are in Cleveland or in Portland. And you know, that's fine for a lot of people, but again, when I travel and report on travel, I like something with a little local character that develops a memorable experience. So as I mentioned, I was staying in Hillsborough, Oregon and had a chance to discover the Orinoco, which is a 10 room boutique luxury hotel with a lot of character and a lot of personal attention. And it is a pleasure to welcome their co-proprior, Margie Waltz, to the show. Margie, good morning and welcome to the show and good to connect with you again. It's been a while. Thank you, Andy. How are you today? You know, enjoying the holiday weekend and hopefully it's busy for you up in Hillsborough. It is. Yes. And I'm going to clarify. My name is Margie. My apologies. No worries. And the hotel is the Orinco Hotel. You know, I'm going to get it right one of these days. But again, I do stand corrected and it is the Orinco. You know, I sort of have my own ideas about these things, Margie. What can I tell you? Well, that particular name is a challenge for a lot of people, though. Well, we should back up a little bit and explain what the name relates to because then we do remember it is the Orinco. Yes. That's right. That's correct. And I have my husband here, Richard, as well. Oh, terrific. I wasn't sure Richard was going to be able to join us, but is the copar proprietor of the Orinco? Richard, it's also good to welcome you. Well, thanks for having us on the show with you. Of course. Now, just backing up to the question that I had started to ask, tell us about what the area in Hillsborough, the Orinco Station, is just to kind of set the stage for the conversation. So, I think those station is kind of the west side of Hillsborough near the Sunset Corridor, Highway 26. And it's the area where the Intel campus, Longler campus, is right next door to us is kind of the biggest company. And Richard, it's pretty big. I passed by the campus and yes, you can't not notice it. We can see it from the floor. So tell us a little bit more about this area because it's pretty special in that it's a work/live play community and, again, has a lot of character to it, which, again, is reflected in your operation. Yeah. Well, when they put together a Orinco Station, their goal was to make it an area where people didn't have to use a vehicle to get a lot of, you know, just basic things that they could walk to a restaurant to the grocery store. And so there's cottages around us and there's the townhomes where the hotel resides. There's 24 townhomes that are private residents. And so when folks come to stay with us, the primary thing that folks notice is they can just, you know, walk out the front door and walk down just a block or two and there are two several restaurants, walk across the parking lot and you've got access to a wonderful grocery store. So when folks come to visit, you know, family, maybe they don't have space or folks have doctors appointment. They come in and they need some place to stay for a little bit of so to recover. There's all kinds of people who come in to the neighborhood and really have to deal with other people. And that's what makes us a really awesome place to be. Well, Richard, as you were saying, what's great about your particular location is the street that you're on, it's not heavily trafficked, it's a walking street. The parking for your buildings is in back. So you know, that is isolated in another area. You have a couple of big parks that are, you know, very short walks away from you. And it really does have this unusual residential character that you really don't normally see in a hotel. Correct. Yeah, and that's, you know, why people love to come and stay with us is they have direct access so that they can just walk out. And, you know, our courtyard rooms, we have designed those to be pet friendly so that we can keep them, you know, able to keep them sparkling clean. We challenged, yes, but think about pet rooms to come check out our rooms to see if there is a pet. So anyway, those rooms provide pet owners, you know, ready access to the street level because you can just. And to the neighboring park. So the neighboring park is called Central Park, and it's designed, you know, similarly to even though New York Central Park is obviously much larger, but it's got, you know, fun busy bows and a lot of senior proms, their pictures there, weddings, their pictures there, you know, senior grads. And our brownstones were designed kind of a European design and, you know, owners owned three of them and then lived out of one and then home, hotel out of the other two. And we then, when we purchased, we live across the street in the brownstone and then have rooms in our lower suite and then also cross at the hotel. So all three of the brownstones are used for the hotel. Well, and Marj, again, that's a real unique situation, and I'm glad that you mentioned the design of the outside of the buildings because, you know, it is the look of a New York brownstone, but of course has all the modern amenities. And in terms of your buildings, when were those townhomes built originally? In the early 2000s, so between 2000 and 2005, all of Varenka station, it's a little suburb of Hillsborough and it's a planned unit development that was, that's world class. I mean, it's received awards and I've been in real estate also for 20 years. And so this was a draw for us as an investment and also an opportunity to be active in the community and serve, you know, serve our guests and be in hospitality. Well, and the point that I was making is, is it is remarkably maintained. You know, both your buildings as well as the whole street. You're not seeing a lot of trash that is on the gutters or on the streets. Very pretty. No, no, you know, again, it just, you know, coming from Southern California, it definitely impresses as far as that's concerned. We are in an HOA and we have a master HOA as well and that does really help and, you know, folks that live in the community, that's the reason they're there. I mean, it's clean and safe. It's enjoyable, walkable and just being able to, you know, park your car in front of the hotel with all your wedding gifts in it and know that it's safe, you know. It's a, that's what's, what's drawn us to it. And it's so, it's unique in that it has, like Richard was mentioning, the brownstones. It has cottages. It has condos. It has all variety of types of homes and it's just, and lots of doggies. Everyone has a dog, it seems like. Well, I think Margie sensed the pandemic in terms of the number of households that has half pets. That's definitely gone up and, you know, we definitely love our four legged friends. They definitely add a lot to every community in every environment. So I think being pet friendly is a good idea. And as a matter of fact, in your little brochure, you have a very cute photo of one of your four legged guests. With all sorts of amenities. And I don't know if the bowl is named Wolf or the dog is named Wolf, but it's, it's kind of cute. Oh, no. No, it's just Wolf. No. We do bowls. We do pillow or bed, doggy beds and doggy treats and little towels to wipe their paws and dog doggy bags and things like that. So we, we provide a little, what's the name of it, or pet, what's the name of what we, I don't know, anyway, this will be called what we give out your, your, your wolf amenity package. Yes, I get it. We are talking with the proprietors of the Arendco, a 10 room boutique luxury hotel in Hillsborough, Oregon, this being Margie Waltz and Richard Lyons. We're going to pick up the conversation on the other side and talk about some of the treats that you have for your two legged guests. It is the SoCal restaurant show, we're proudly presented by Melissa's World Variety Produce. We'll be right back. [MUSIC]
