A storefront on SE Milwaukie Avenue that spent years pouring craft beer is about to start pressing flour tortillas. Hecho de Mano Tortilleria, opened by Kevin Orona and German Olivas, will officially open its doors in Sellwood on September 15, selling housemade flour tortillas, ready-to-heat meal packs, and a menu built around the couple's West Texas roots.
Orona and Olivas moved from Odessa, Texas to Portland in 2020, and according to Portland Mercury, they struggled to find the fresh flour tortillas they were used to back home. Orona has said he and Olivas felt homesick because of that limited access, a feeling that eventually turned into a business plan. They started making tortillas for family, friends, and neighbors, and when people kept asking for more, the couple decided to sell them on the regular market.
That decision led them to Sellwood and Woodstock farmers markets, where Olivas and Orona began selling vegan, preservative-free tortillas back in May 2026. The response was apparently strong enough to justify a storefront, and they landed one with a personal connection: the new shop sits across the street from Away Days Brewing, a soccer-themed craft brewery where Orona previously worked, according to the Portland Mercury. Away Days was founded in 2019 by British transplants in Southeast Portland.
From Farmers Markets to a Brick-and-Mortar Storefront
The address itself, 4270 SE Milwaukie Avenue, has its own recent history. The Mercury's report notes the space was previously occupied by Array Bottle Shop, a neighborhood craft beer bar and community art space that had operated there since December 2021 before shutting down in February 2026. Hecho de Mano held a soft opening in the space during the final weekend of August 2026, per Bridgetown Bites' reporting on the changeover.
Bridgetown Bites frames the opening as part of a broader turnover pattern along the corridor, noting that Hecho de Mano is filling a commercial space left vacant by Array's closure earlier in the year. The storefront sits within the Cora Apartments building in Portland's Brooklyn district, a stretch of SE Milwaukie Avenue that links the historic Brooklyn neighborhood to Sellwood-Moreland and the city of Milwaukie.
What's on the Menu
Hecho de Mano's tortillas are made with whole wheat flour from Bob's Red Mill, water, salt, and cane shortening, per the Mercury's reporting. The mill itself is headquartered just down the road in Milwaukie, Oregon, giving the tortilleria a distinctly local supply chain. Bob's Red Mill was founded in 1978 and became 100% employee-owned following a transition that began in 2010, a shift that took hold after founder Bob Moore's death in February 2024 at age 94.
Beyond the tortillas themselves, the shop will offer shredded beef, beans, rice, and potatoes with chiles, and it plans to introduce a family meal pack for $55 that includes tortillas, beans, rice, papas con chile, carne desebrada, and four agua frescas. A beef tallow tortilla special is also planned, alongside future red and green chile tortilla varieties. The founders say they plan to add hot, ready-to-eat food down the line, and Olivas and Orona have discussed getting local markets to carry their tortillas wholesale, with hopes of eventually landing on menus at barbecue spots and Mexican restaurants around town.
Keeping It Affordable
Orona has said he wants to keep the food as affordable as possible, and the couple is considering selling bean and cheese burritos for as little as $1. That pricing philosophy stands out given how much the tortilla business has scaled for them already: Olivas and Orona have gone from making a few dozen tortillas at a time to producing hundreds in a single batch.
Once open, the shop will keep modest hours: Thursday and Friday from noon to 7 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The tortillas themselves are built to last, holding up on the shelf for a week or more, up to a month in the refrigerator, and even longer when frozen.
A Growing Tortilla Scene in Portland
Hecho de Mano is entering a Portland tortilla market that already has deep roots. Three Sisters Nixtamal, established in 2012, has anchored the city's heritage corn tortilla sector by producing organic, fresh-ground corn masa using traditional nixtamalization, according to Portland Monthly, processing more than three tons of corn masa weekly for regional markets and restaurants. But the Mercury's coverage frames Hecho de Mano's niche as distinct: rather than corn, the founders set out to fill a shortage of fresh West Texas-style flour tortillas, with an emphasis on house-made, preservative-free products and ready-to-heat meal packs.
That niche fits into a wider pattern of family-run Mexican food businesses expanding across Portland. Hoodline previously reported on the Madrina Cocina Mexicana opening downtown, launched by the family behind longtime institution Salsas Locas, formerly known as Tortilleria y Tienda De Leon. Taqueria Mexa also expanded in 2026, adding a second location near Portland State University to serve Mexico City-style specialties on hand-pressed masa, building on its original flagship on NE 82nd Avenue. Nationally, the tortilla market has been on an upward trajectory too, reaching an estimated $6.7 billion valuation in 2023 as interest grew in both mass-market and small-batch regional styles.
For now, Hecho de Mano's next milestone is simple: opening its storefront doors on September 15 and seeing how Sellwood responds to fresh, handmade flour tortillas delivered straight from a couple who just wanted a taste of home.
