On Saturdays, the tasting room at Matchbook Distilling Co. opens to the public, and the curious drop by to sip distiller and partner Leslie Merinoff Kwasnieski’s ever-shifting, novel creations. At the 38,000-square-foot distillery in Greenport, New York, Merinoff Kwasnieski hatches limited-production releases of unconventional spirits and liqueurs like Blind Duck Blackberry Brandy and Daytrip Strawberry Amaro that celebrate the agricultural bounty of Long Island’s North Fork.
These experimental inclinations also translate to the tasting room’s design. After purchasing the building in 2016, Merinoff Kwasnieski and her partners—husband Brian Kwasnieski and Paul Monahan—spent the next two years painstakingly reimagining the former boat-parts storage facility.
“We had to do it all ourselves because we had no cash,” she recalls. Luckily, a slew of savvy friends, including an artist who studied architecture and someone who worked in event production, came to the rescue.
Matchbook Distilling Company in Greenport, New York boasts an array of craft spirits
In true DIY fashion, the crew meshed plywood and metal typically used for disguising HVAC systems with high-end tiles and a bespoke pink velvet curtain “that mimics the curved wall in the room,” Merinoff Kwasnieski says. “We had a local guy pour concrete to make our counter slabs. Those came out beautifully and look way more expensive than they were to produce.”
Given she’s a descendant of Canadian Club whisky founder Hiram Walker, and her father Charles Merinoff is co-chairman of the behemoth wine, spirits, and beer distributor Breakthru Beverage Group, Merinoff Kwasnieski’s career path is a fitting one. Her dad “has a one-track mind for the industry so I grew up hearing about the early days, and I’ve always been captivated by them,” she says. She relished visits to wineries, tasting fruit in the vineyards, as well as restaurant dinners interrupted by her father’s prompts to describe the flavor, say, of bell pepper.
Merinoff Kwasnieski first toyed with the idea of becoming a liquor lawyer. But after the University of Vermont, where she experimented with homebrewing, she stepped into a marketing position at spirits producer William Grant & Sons. There, she saw an avenue to production and got a job at now-shuttered Brooklyn rum distillery the Noble Experiment.
The tasting room inside Matchbook Distilling Company, a 38,000-square-foot space on Long Island known for its limited-production releases
Her love of hospitality transcends distilling. As the expansive team was readying Matchbook Distilling Co. for its debut, they needed somewhere to stay nearby. Houses were small and prices high, so the Shady Lady, a long- abandoned Victorian inn minutes from the distillery, beckoned. Following another deeply personal renovation, it was unveiled in 2018 as the Lin Beach House, complementing the residential units with six guestrooms and a bar showcasing Matchbox innovations.
“It was wild in there. It was left as if it was ready for service that night. All the tables were set, all the rooms were done up, but it was dusty and there were signs a clan of raccoons was living there,” she says. “It was so maximalist all we had to do was peel things away.” Once the abundance of velvet and cherubs were removed, a soft coastal vibe was elicited through staining the floors and painting the walls in soothing hues of white, pink, and green. This spring, the property is evolving into a fully private retreat revolving around themed itineraries. One group might be enticed by the antique boat ride to an oyster farm, another by learning to make gin.
“I feel so shaped by Long Island’s geography and it inspires everything I do. I make a spirit from roasted pineapples, and obviously pineapples are not grown in the Northeast, but I start by breaking them down in a big firepit, like a clambake,” she explains. “The land here seeps into your mind.”
Merinoff Kwasnieski also owns the charming Lin Beach House, a boutique hotel in Greenport
This article originally appeared in HD’s April 2026 issue.