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Readers’ Choice Awards: Cork Restaurant garners several ‘Best Of’ titles

<p>EDWARDSVILLE &#8212; Wyoming Valley Beverage has its feet firmly in two different time frames.</p><p>The store&#8217;s manager, Lenny Cordora, 33, says things have changed a lot in the way people drink beer in recent years.</p><p>&#8220;With craft beer, things have really opened up,&#8221; Cordora said, while showing a reporter around the aisles that stored what felt like miles of beer. &#8220;Beer is back.&#8221;</p><p>Cordora manages the store while his father, Leonard, owns it. Cordora said the store, located at 63 S. Wyoming Ave., Edwardsville, has long been in his family&#8217;s hands.</p><p>&#8220;I learned to walk here,&#8221; he said with a laugh.</p><p>Growing up in the store, Cordora said he&#8217;s seen plenty of trends come and go, but he said there&#8217;s a major difference in the way younger generations buy beer.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll have older people come in and get their case of Miller Lite, but the younger generations want to try more things,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They&#8217;ll buy a bunch of six-packs &#8212; sometimes as many as a case &#8212; but they just want to try new things.&#8221;</p><p>So, Cordora said, when he began working as a manager at the store five years ago, he committed to bringing in those new things. And that is part of the reason that the store was voted best beer distributor by Times Leader readers in the newspaper&#8217;s annual Readers&#8217; Choice Awards.</p><p>The popularity of craft beer has exploded in recent years, allowing customers to sample flavors they might not have ever considered before. And Cordora said it&#8217;s his own love of craft beer that allowed Wyoming Valley Beverage to cater to the younger crowd.</p><p>&#8220;If it wasn&#8217;t for me drinking craft beer, we probably wouldn&#8217;t do this,&#8221; he said.</p><p>But it&#8217;s not all fancy craft beers for Wyoming Valley Beverage. As is to be expected, there are still cases of Miller, Coors, Budweiser, Corona and all the other classics.</p><p>Part of what makes Wyoming Valley Beverage great, Cordora says, is how organized it is. In fact, it&#8217;s almost obsessively organized, as Cordora swapped bottles and boxes on shelves to make the displays look better while he talked.</p><p>&#8220;The store is very shoppable,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It&#8217;s well-lit, it&#8217;s clean; there&#8217;s a family atmosphere.&#8221;</p><p>And he wasn&#8217;t lying about that last part. Numerous times during his conversation with the reporter, Cordora interrupted himself to say hi to a customer that just walked in. What&#8217;s more, he knew all of their names.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re big on first-name basis here,&#8221; he said.</p><p>Cordora also said the store holds the sort of events that are typically reserved for wineries: tastings. You can check out the store&#8217;s <a href="https://www.facebook.com/wyomingvalleybeverageEdw/" target="_blank">Facebook page</a> for information on the beer tastings and other events the store might be holding.</p><p>According to Cordora, working in this business is its own reward.</p><p>&#8220;I can&#8217;t stress enough how fun it is,&#8221; he said while continuing to straighten bottles around the store. &#8220;There&#8217;s always new stuff.&#8221;</p><p>Ultimately, if you were to ask why his store was voted the best, Cordora said it&#8217;s the new spin he put on everything.</p><p>&#8220;A lot of distributors don&#8217;t want to do this,&#8221; he said. &#8220;So I thought, &#8216;I&#8217;ll do it.&#8217; And we&#8217;re still making money.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Lenny Cordora inside his family&#8217;s beverage store, Wyoming Valley Beverage, in Edwardsville. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/web1_TTL03xx18best-of-beverage1-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Lenny Cordora inside his family&#8217;s beverage store, Wyoming Valley Beverage, in Edwardsville. </caption0><photoCredit0>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/web1_TTL03xx18best-of-beverage2-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wyoming Valley Beverage in Edwardsville was voted best beer distributor by Times Leader readers. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/web1_TTL03xx18best-of-beverage2-1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Wyoming Valley Beverage in Edwardsville was voted best beer distributor by Times Leader readers. </caption1><photoCredit1>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/web1_TTL03xx18best-of-beverage3-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Some of the craft beer available at Wyoming Valley Beverage in Edwardsville. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/web1_TTL03xx18best-of-beverage3-1.jpg</photo2><caption2>Some of the craft beer available at Wyoming Valley Beverage in Edwardsville. </caption2><photoCredit2>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Patrick Kernan</p><p>pkernan@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Patrick Kernan at 570-991-6386 or on Twitter @PatKernan</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Readers’ Choice Awards: Wyoming Valley Beverage blends old and new beer tastes