Sentinel

It’s not hard to take a dilapidated, old grande dame and revitalize it, to bring it into the 21st century. Slap an impressive-sounding, forward-looking name on it and do a paint-by-numbers renovation to turn it into yet another vaguely charming boutique hotel. But that’s not what the team at Portland-based Provenance Hotels did with the Sentinel, when it took over the former Governor Hotel (which, before that, was two buildings: the 1909 Seward Hotel and the 1923 Elks Temple). No, the Sentinel is a carefully written love letter to both Portland’s past and its future. Its earth-toned decor (done mostly by local West End design firm Boys Fort) is sufficiently grand and vintage-seeming enough to complement the ornate original architecture, with everything sourced from local purveyors like Pendleton and Schoolhouse Electric; it’s also, however, entirely modern, with touches like personally curated Spotify playlists and a Salt & Straw ice cream delivery service. The main restaurant is a Portland icon, an Old World steakhouse, while the lobby bar is a trendy affair run by the team behind some of the city’s coolest nightlife spots. It would seem that the landmark hotel is back at the top of her game.