Best of West Side: Wyoming Valley Beverage — family owned since 1946

EDWARDSVILLE — Sam Cordora opened the first Wyoming Valley Beverage in 1946 in West Pittston — actually, he had two small stores before finally locating next to Blue Ribbon Dairy on Exeter Avenue.

Today, Sam Cordora’s son, Lenny Sr., and daughter, Connie, own Wyoming Valley Beverage, which they opened in 1985 at Wyoming Avenue in Edwardsville. Lenny’s son, Lenny Jr., manages the store.

”My grandfather died when my father was young, so that’s when he had to take over the business alone and help support the family until my father and my Aunt Connie opened here in Edwardsville in September 1985,” Lenny Jr. said. “My father has been in the beer business for more than 65 years.”

Wyoming Valley Beverage was named Best Beer Distributor in the Times Leader Media Group’s Best of the West Side promotion.

Lenny Jr. said since 1985, the business has gone through many changes — he said returnable beer and soda cases were a major part of the store’s business until cans really took hold with 30-packs and recycling.

“I started working here part-time in high school until taking up full-time when I was 21 years old in 2005,” Lenny Jr. said. “Since then, we’ve started taking on more craft and imported beer styles that were getting popular, and the business grew year-by-year as craft took a big hold of the beer market.”

Finally, after years of trying, Lenny Jr. said they were finally allowed to sell more than just cases and kegs of beer. He said laws were passed that made it legal for them to sell smaller packages of beer, like 6-packs, 12-packs, and singles.

“That’s when the floodgates started to open for us, and our selection has since tripled in size,” he said. “I believe people love coming here because we’re still a family-owned business after all these years.”

Lenny Jr. said many distributors have come and gone or sold out.

“But we’re beer people, and we’re doing what we love,” he said.

Lenny Jr. said selling beer is only one aspect of the store.

“The friends we’ve made and customers we’ve come to love are all part of retail, especially when you’re dealing with beer in a valley that was basically raised on it,” Lenny Jr. said. “People appreciate family and come from all over to shop here. They love talking with us about everything. Joking around with us, telling us stories, telling us happy or sad news about themselves or family — our customers feel very at home and comfortable here with us.

Lenny Jr. said whether it’s his father and aunt talking about the good old days or his father and him having a daily argue-session about dumb stuff as fathers and sons do, customers love the entertainment of coming here and experiencing that.

And he said Wyoming Valley Beverage’s selection now is huge — domestic, craft and imported beer aren’t the only things people want from a beer distributor anymore, so now they have Ready-To-Drink cocktails and all kinds of different seltzers and flavored malt beverages.

“Our store is very clean, obsessively organized and cared for,” Lenny Jr. said.

Store hours

Open 7 days a week at 63 South Wyoming Ave. in Edwardsville.

Mon-Thurs 9 a.m. — 8 p.m.

Friday & Saturday — 9 a.m. — 9 p.m.

Sunday — 11 a.m. — 5 p.m.

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