New Deal Distillery sits in Portland’s industrial Southeast, inside a converted warehouse that used to house motorcycle repair shops. Tom Burkleaux and Matthew Van Wyk founded the operation in 2004, making them one of Oregon’s craft distilling pioneers when the movement was just getting started. Burkleaux came from the restaurant world while Van Wyk brought brewing experience, and together they decided Portland’s food scene needed locally-made spirits to match. The 6,000-square-foot space houses their copper pot stills and doubles as a tasting room and bottle shop where you can sample everything from their signature gin to experimental liqueurs. The journey wasn’t exactly smooth sailing. Oregon’s distilling laws were practically medieval when they started, requiring them to navigate regulations that hadn’t been updated since Prohibition. They spent months convincing city officials that yes, people actually wanted to visit distilleries, and no, it wouldn’t turn the neighborhood into chaos. Head distiller Matthew Van Wyk handles most of the production decisions, drawing on his background in fermentation science to create spirits that reflect Portland’s experimental food culture. The philosophy here is pretty straightforward: make stuff that tastes good and doesn’t follow someone else’s playbook. Visitors walk into what feels more like a neighborhood bottle shop than a formal distillery experience. The tasting room has a relaxed, industrial vibe with concrete floors and exposed beams, and the staff treats tastings like casual conversations rather than scripted presentations. You can watch production happening behind glass partitions, and during slower periods, Van Wyk or other team members often wander out to explain what’s bubbling away in the tanks. It’s the kind of place where you might come for a quick tasting and end up staying for an hour talking about fermentation techniques.