Portland’s pop-up king of tacos and mariscos is going legit hotel. Adán Fausto, the Portland chef behind Tacos Con Onda and Mariscos con Onda, has been named executive chef at The Hoxton’s Portland hotel and will take over the menus at rooftop taqueria Tope and basement speakeasy 2NW5. He is slated to debut the new Tope menu on Thursday, Feb. 5, followed by a mariscos-focused lineup at 2NW5 on Friday, Feb. 14. The move shifts Fausto from seasonal residencies into two permanent hotel venues, where his Baja- and Mexico City-influenced dishes will meet Pacific Northwest seafood in full-menu form, including mesquite-grilled carne asada, shrimp flautas, and rockfish milanesa reworked beyond pop-up portions.
According to The Oregonian/OregonLive, Fausto, who has cooked in Michelin-starred kitchens in New York and California, was tapped to run the hotel’s entire culinary program and refresh both Tope and 2NW5. Hotel management told the outlet it expects the rollouts to be complete by early February and that Fausto will bring his pop-up sensibility into the hotel’s dining spaces.
Fausto’s background will be familiar to Portland diners. He has led the pop-ups Tacos Con Onda and Mariscos con Onda and has cooked in kitchens for Daniel Boulud, Thomas Keller, José Andrés, and Michael Mina, according to Eater Portland. His own biography notes that he graduated from the Culinary Institute of America, cooked in Denmark, New York, and Los Angeles, and spent time at Ava Gene’s after moving to Portland; those details appear on his Mariscos con Onda page.
What Tope’s Reboot Will Look Like
At Tope, Fausto’s menu is described as drawing on Mexico City and Baja California, with tacos, his signature shrimp flautas, and rockfish milanesa mini tortas anchoring the short-run plates. The refreshed rooftop lineup is scheduled to debut on Thursday, Feb. 5. Perched atop The Hoxton, the taqueria is set up to pair those dishes with the hotel’s cocktails and skyline views. As reported by The Oregonian/OregonLive, Tope’s changes are part of a broader update to the hotel’s overall food program.
Basement Speakeasy Embraces Mariscos
Downstairs, 2NW5 is expected to lean hard into mariscos, with a seafood-driven menu that uses Pacific Northwest catches prepared with Mexican seafood techniques and shareable plates in mind. Fausto’s mariscos work has already earned local attention: Eater Portland named Mariscos con Onda one of the city’s best pop-ups, and critics have highlighted his Baja-influenced seafood preparations. The speakeasy setting is expected to give Fausto room to play with texture and smoke while pairing those plates with inventive cocktails…