“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 pastries 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 owners of TheOrenco, Margie Waltz and Richard Lyons, stay with us providing more of the accommodating details.
This is Tristan Beeman of the Wine Exchange in Santa Ana. You're listening to a spectacular vintage year in Food News, SoCal Restaurant Show. Cheers and welcome back. It is the Labor Day holiday weekend version of the SoCal restaurant show and we're here with you every Saturday morning from 10 a.m. until 12 noon right here on AMA 30 KLA the home of Angels Baseball 2024 and you can also catch us on the AMA 30 Angels app. I'm Andy Harris the executive producer and co-host to the show. Thanks for sharing part of your long holiday weekend with us. We appreciate it and we're enthusiastically presented each and every week by Melissa's World Variety Produce and West Coast Prime Meats. We are journeying back to Hillsboro, Oregon. Specifically, we are talking with the proprietors of the Arendco, which is a 10-room luxury boutique hotel with a lot of character and it's a pleasure to welcome Margie and Richard back to the show. Before we talk about some of the specific amenities of the Arendco, you are a short walk away from kind of a secret weapon if you want to leave the car at the curb and that is the TriMet Max Stop. Can you tell us what that is and what it connects to? Well, that's great that you asked because just recently, I think just recently or this week, they're going to be the train. It's called the Max and the light rail train goes from downtown Hillsboro all the way into downtown Portland and out to the Portland airport as well as other communities in the area. They just now created a line, a direct line from our stop all the way straight to the airport with having to not have to change trains. So that's cool and it allows people to jump on the train and go to two stops down to the Beaverton round, which is a great place for good trucks and all kinds of great restaurants and other activities or downtown to the trailblazer game or out to the airport. I guess you can just come all the way from the airport directly to us and just let that three block, four block walk to our home. Definitely very convenient and a nice amenity. Now, I think we have Richard getting Richard back in the conversation but not echoing in the background. Can you tell us a little bit more about some of the restaurants that are within walking distance of you? Because as I remember, Middle Eastern, pizza, sushi, etc, etc. So tell us a little more because again, Richard, we are a dining show. Right, right. Yeah, there's about like 12 restaurants near us. There's the little big burger. There's Ada's coffee shop down at the down at the end. They do great pastries and stuff in the morning. Love Revants does a great full breakfast. French restaurants. The Indian restaurant, yes, that's what got is world-renowned Indian restaurant. People come from afar to go there. And then there's sushi. Sushi right next to us. The recognition grill is probably where I would say 60 to 75 percent of our guests go for dinner or for happy hour. And it's just right at the end of the block. Nice upscale kind of sports bar. Yeah, nice atmosphere. I was there. Yes. Yeah. Outdoor patio, dining outside of the restaurant. Pizza. It's all outside. Their windows all open. You can sit outside. They're dog friendly. You can they have dog bowls and right and card games at the table. No, Margie, you reminded me you walk up and down the street and all the businesses have the nice little fresh water bowl for our four-legged canine friends. So I'm getting that visual. Now, in terms of an amenity that you offer your guests, you have a wonderful French Asian bakery that's right down the street from you. And you give all of your guests a fairly generous coupon each morning that you can go down there and have breakfast. Tell us a little bit more about that because their pastries are really sensational. And from what I saw, everything is baked fresh daily there. Yeah. Yeah, that works great for us. So we don't have room in our hotels for restaurants. So we want to operate as a bed and breakfast, have our breakfast available. So we take advantage of the businesses in our neighborhood to provide that through this. And as you're, we partner with them to provide the vouchers. And they provide a broad range of stuff, both sweet and savory. So it's a really good place for most of our travelers. And guess when they have, after they've been there the first day, and if they're staying longer, they can't wait to go back. Because it's such a unique experience. It's like no other. I mean, they do have croissants and some things that you've seen in other bakery-type places. But it's a very unique style of baking of what you're getting, and the products and the ingredients, you know, sweet potatoes, stuff, buns, very light and sweet. And yeah, very unique. But the guests just love it. And they have full coffee bar as well. Well, yes, Margie, let's not forget the coffee. Because, you know, that's something that everybody is very passionate about. So to have premium coffee with those artisan pastries, you know, that's the that's the two plus two equals five and, you know, a lovely amenity in your area. And again, I enjoyed their pastries every morning of my stay with you and definitely want to make sure they got some recognition. Now, let's get back to the Arenko for a moment if we could. Each one of your rooms is different. Talk about the amenities that are that are in your room, because there's definitely a lot going on. And the other thing I will mention as you're contemplating that is, is one of the basics, particularly when you are a travel writer, is you need a reliable internet connection. And, you know, it sounds like something that is really easy, but in some major hotel properties, not so much, you have good internet access. So I'll let you take it from there. Sure. Well, when guests arrive, they are greeted with a personalized welcome card that we then tell them who we are. And we offer complimentary bottles, red wine, Northwest red wine with each guest. And in the card is their voucher for the breakfast. And then, of course, Wi-Fi, we kind of pride ourselves on the little thing. Fresh flowers in the lobby, live plants in the room, extra touches with blankets and bathrobes, and lots of fun toiletries. We have, we provide the full gamut, even the shoe wipes, the wife or shoes. It's pretty much everything complimentary once you're in the building. You have access if you're staying for a few days, see the guest washroom, all the soap and whatever you need is their, you know, concierge service. We've given out people that were cooking up something and they needed butter. We've given out butter and pans and different things that folks are looking for that they need when they travel. Yeah, all the rooms have many kitchenettes. Some have more. We have two rooms with full kitchens. And the, you know, all the things that you need if you needed to stay for a few days and want to cook your own meal. We have dishes, glassware, silverware. Nothing's plastic. We cry real hard to be, you know, ecology-minded and eliminate as much waste as we can. But I think mostly it's just anybody needs anything. They're a text or a phone call or a concierge person away from- Well, people feel like they're in a home instead of in a more of a commercial type hotel. No, absolutely. And as you mentioned, the people that you have on the front desk besides yourselves, because you're both very visible, even if you're only there for a day, they can give you good, honest advice on anything that you might need, whether it be getting from here to there or specific restaurant recommendations, or even at your wonderful French bakery, you know, what some of the hit parade items are, because again, you know, you don't want to waste getting an item that is not just absolutely outrageous. So definitely all helpful. Before we run out of time, just if we can get a range, your rooms are very competitively priced compared to the corporate properties that would offer, you know, some of the amenities, but not all the amenities that you offer, because you can't do that in a large corporate hotel. Can you give us an idea of what some of the range of rates are? Because again, I do want our listeners that are coming up to the Portland area might be doing some wine tasting in the Willamette Valley area to consider the Eringco, because in my experience, you really are doing something special that's worth noting. Well, thank you. No, thanks. Yeah, so normal pricing is 190 to like 230, varies by the room type. We have discounts for various things. In your discount, we have weekly pricing. We have monthly pricing of locals-only pricing. Lots of, we try real hard to partner with anybody that's in the area like the Cultural Arts Center in the community. They bring in musicians. We partner with that. We partner with the University in Forest Grove to when they have interviews for coming in for staffing, and we love to offer discounts and promo codes. So, to call us, our favorite thing to do is to take a phone call or they can email us as well, and we'll get them hooked in with the discount, because they're not all available on the website. I just love the personal touch. It's always great when you can pick up a phone, Margie, and actually talk to someone. Not get into a phone tree that there eight or nine options before you finally get to. Maybe you can talk to someone, and then you find out they're not in the United States. So, that's- Exactly. If you usually mean that answers the phone, me or Richard, so we all are always trying to offer that personal touch. Yes, most of Margie. And all good. Now, before we need to say goodbye, just mention one more time, if you would, about what the Orenko Station area of Hillsborough is, then your actual street address and also your website so people can get more information. Sure. I'll start with the street address. So, we're 1457 1457 Northeast Orenko Station Parkway in Hillsborough. Yeah, 97124. We are- Let's see. What was the other question? Just a website in the spelling. Orenko.com. Yep, the Orenko.com. And we're in Orenko Station, a suburb of Hillsborough, which is west of Portland, about 30 minutes. And yeah, the community is about 90,000 people in Hillsborough, so it gives you an idea of the size of our area. Yeah, but we'd love to host anyone from your area up at our hotel to take advantage of all the wonderful things we have in the Northwest. Absolutely. And Orenko is O-R-E-N-C-O. It is a gentleman. It is the Orenko in Hillsborough, a local boutique hotel. We've been speaking with the proprietors, Margie Waltz and Richard Lyons. You are listening to the SoCal restaurant show. Yes, when we return, as promised, Chef Andrew Grewell with his "Ask the Chef" segment, we're proudly presented by Melissa's world variety produce. Give us a couple minutes. We'll be right back. [Music]
