Famine to feast: Two new shops emerge

Not so long ago, when I lived in Minneapolis' Nokomis neighborhood, a fellow had to venture far and wide to find good wine.

Not anymore. In the past few months alone, two enterprising souls, Arpad Nagy and Russell Fay, have crafted wine-centric emporiums in spaces old and new, within a few blocks of each other.

Nagy bought and totally revamped a neighborhood institution, Ken & Norm's (4801 Chicago Av. S.), while Fay opened a small shop called the Cork Dork at 4726 Cedar Av. S. Both offer well-chosen wine inventories that fit the increasingly gentrified (but still hip), young-family-heavy neighborhood.

"People here were like 'Finally, something is changing here,'" said Nagy. "People in this neighborhood have very open minds for good wine."

They also lean green, Nagy added. "Anything that says 'organic' on the bottle, it sells."

Nagy, a sharp, robust 33-year-old Budapest native, conceptualized the redesign himself, and the new space is warm, welcoming and still redolent of the earthtone paint. But he never gave a second thought to changing one aspect of the store.

"I think it's an historic name, so I'm not changing that," Nagy said. "For 30 years, people who grew up around here say, 'That's where I bought my first alcohol.'"

A few blocks to the east in a narrow slot less than half the size of Ken & Norm's 900 square feet, Cork Dork is the very definition of a "little-guy" operation. Stacks of boxes throughout the tidy space are capped by hand-picked wines and handwritten signs. The personal touch comes courtesy of proprietor Russell Fay, a longtime food and beverage provider in these parts.

"It's 400 square feet of wines that I have tasted," Fay said. And while he's the eponymous caretaker of this shop (motto: "Where all wines are Cork Dork-approved"), part of the name comes into play another way, by happenstance. "Our cork floor just kind of fell into place."

And while it might seem like happenstance has brought two wine-eriffic outlets to this area, it's actually the continuation of a trend all along Minnehaha Creek in south Minneapolis.

To the east, at 5010 34th Av. S., McDonald's Liquors -- like Ken & Norm's, a former beer-and-booze mart -- has transformed itself in recent years into a well-rounded store, the wine portion spearheaded by Michael Hennessy.

And at 5300 Lyndale Av. S., South Lyndale Liquors is now among the Twin Cities' foremost wine outlets, thanks to a recent expansion and wine buyer Mitch Zavada's unflagging passion and unfailing palate.

Now if we could just get some similar efforts going near my current home in Hopkins ...

Bill Ward • bill.ward@startribune.com Read Ward on Wine at startribune.com/blogs/wine.