Jose “Pepe” Fundora, Owner of Cork & Glass and co-owner of Casa Nuova Italian Restaurant.Jose “Pepe” Fundora has grown up in the hospitality industry. His parents Maria and Antonio Fundora have owned and managed restaurants since before he was born. From the moment he was able to, Fundora started working at his parent’s restaurant, Casa Nuova Italian Restaurant. Though initially, Fundora considered this work more like daily chores, it also became a way for him to learn important life lessons.
While Fundora would lend a helping hand at Casa Nuova when his parents needed it during his time at Georgia Tech, it wasn’t until after graduating and getting laid off from his first job at NCR that Fundora started working for the restaurant in a more full-time capacity. Even still, he was unsure if that’s where his passion lied. That is, until he was bit by the wine bug.
In 2013, during a trip to Napa Valley with his parents to scope out vintners, Fundora had his “aha” moment.
“I was like, you know, this wine stuff’s pretty cool and kind of fun,” Fundora, 33, says. “There are all these nuances and things that just don’t make sense, but I want to find out. I want figure it out. It’s like a math equation in my brain.”
Following his trip to wine country, Fundora pursued his accreditation through The Court of Master Sommeliers and became a level 2 certified sommelier in 2018. With a fervor for wine and an innate curiosity about wines everywhere from California to Australia, Fundora eyed the storefront next door to Casa Nuova as a place to make specialty wines more accessible to the public and Casa Nuova’s patrons. So Fundora opened Cork and Glass in July 2020.
At Cork and Glass, Fundora manages everything from inventory, checking sales and placing orders to communicating with reps and holding tastings and even hosting wine maker dinners with top talent like Joe Wagner of Belle Glos, Mitch Steele of New Realm Brewing and Maggie Kruse of Jordan Winery to name a few.
The key to Fundora’s success? Organization, open-mindedness and communication above all else.
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