PORTLAND, ORE. — Guests checking into the Nines hotel in this city's downtown area enter a relatively nondescript space at street level and are then guided to the eighth floor for an appointment at the front desk. When the elevator doors open, "non- descript" no longer applies.
"Striking" will occur to some; "bewildering" to others. The words "not-in-Kansas-anymore" might be uttered.
While guests recite the mundane details of their lives -- first and last names, address -- and reach for their credit cards, they will likely stare at a series of mannequins that dot the check-in area. Nude mannequins, painted white and shades of brown and tan.
A set of enormous jewel-studded chains -- a necklace worthy of the giant's wife in the fairy tale "Jack and the Beanstalk" -- hangs nearby. Many walls throughout the hotel are adorned with original art. But those mannequins somehow remain the most memorable of first impressions. They say "tradition be damned." They say "you probably won't find a gift shop on this property."
They say "hip hotel."
And yes, the Nines is just such a beast. The chicken and waffles in the hotel's Urban Farmer restaurant come with chile sauce and truffle honey, transforming a bit of comfort food into foodie fare. There is no gift shop stocked with Tylenol or junk food or bad costume jewelry.
But if the term "hip hotel" conjures notions of Philippe Starck-inspired rooms with spectacular design and no place in the bathroom for a makeup bag, fear not. The Nines employs a few conventional touches that will appeal to a slightly wider array of guests than the emaciated creatures and their escorts who populated the lobbies of Manhattan's Paramount and Royalton hotels in the 1990s.
The trip to Portland was occasioned by my son's college graduation, so I booked two rooms for the first two nights of our stay to accommodate the family, which includes my husband, Steve, and 17-year-old daughter, Madeline. Diploma Boy declined our invitation to abandon his friends and join his family at the Nines (what was I thinking?), but the double booking afforded an opportunity to assess two room styles.
One space was dominated by a king-size bed; a separate office cubicle offered a decent-size desk and wireless high-speed Internet access. The other room housed two queen-size beds and a turquoise velvet chaise that sat under a window. Standard rooms range from 370 to 481 square feet.
