Cooked to Perfection, Ava’s Pizzeria & Wine Bar

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Ava’s Pizzeria & Wine Bar owner Chris Agharabi gets the question often from customers: Why don’t you open a location in my town? Agharabi owns and operates three popular restaurants in St. Michaels, Cambridge, and Rehoboth Beach. “When people stop asking me to open in their town, I am doing something wrong,” Agharabi explains. “All I know is that we’ve got food that people love.” 

Pizza and meatballs are easily among the best sellers. And every month, Ava’s features a chef’s favorite pizza and the offerings are a big hit. Ava’s has 10 specialty pizzas and 20 toppings for build-your-own pizza. Yet the restaurant is more than pizzas.

“Diners in St. Michael’s like the short rib dish,” Agharabi says of the Ava’s Pizzeria location that opened in 2008. “It’s the only place we have it. We also have barbecue shrimp, New Orleans style.” 

And the wine bar features about 80 different selections. “The wine bar concept was to make it a relaxing place,” Agharabi says. “Most of the wines are new world (United States, South Africa, Australian). We do have a selection of Italian wines and an old-world (European) selection.” 

Ava’s Pizzeria & Wine Bar—named after his daughter—aims for repeat customers. “I want people to eat with us once a week,” Agharabi says. “I want to deliver a consistent experience.” 

To learn more, we sat down with the 52-year-old Agharabi to discuss Ava’s.

What are your top selling food items?

At St. Michael’s, the thin crust pizzas. In Rehoboth, we sell more Detroit-style pizza than regular pizza because it’s something different. The heirloom tomato pie is also popular. And the Chef’s Favorite with crispy prosciutto, arugula, prosciutto reduction, and fresh mozzarella. You have that creaminess from the mozzarella. When it’s melted right, it rounds out that crunch. It’s a perfect balance of bitter, sweet, sour, and salt. It’s full of flavor and texture. It’s just a complete package of a very delicious pizza. It goes with red or white wine.   

What’s another favorite?

The meatballs are big—three-ounces. People really love those. We use simple ingredients. It’s garlic bread, fresh parsley, fresh parmesan, some eggs, salt, and ground beef. We want them to be light. You want to be able to take a knife and cut through them without completely disintegrating. You get the tomato sauce from the meatball that has the really good flavor of a Sunday gravy. 

Tell me about your wine bar?

The first word that always pops into my head is accessible. Customers are going to see some familiar wines, but they are going to see some wines they normally don’t see. We try blends. People always want new world wines versus old world wines. But we have both to be accessible for people to try things. We want balance.

Talk about making the ingredients from scratch.

The little details make a difference. We pretty much make everything from scratch. I like to say it’s real food. We use real flour for our dough. We don’t put sugar in it. We use cake yeast. It’s how you would do it if you are making real pizza. We make our own cheese using Italian cheese making machines. We make our little cherry mozzarella. We get tomatoes from California, and they are better than the Italian ones depending on the time of the year. In the summer, we have someone from Talbot County that grows all of our tomatoes. We don’t buy anything pre-made. 

How are your three locations different from each other?

They are really tailored to the town where they are located. If you look at Ava’s in St. Michael’s, it’s in an old goose picking house on Main Street. It’s an old, split house. We still keep it like a house inside and modernized certain things about it. I tried to keep the historic vibe to it. 

At Rehoboth, originally it was four different stores. It’s stucco. It’s a block from the beach. We have garage doors that open up. It’s got a warehouse vibe. Not a historic one. 

In downtown Cambridge, it’s an old brick building. It also has a historic vibe to it, and it fits the neighborhood and environment. 

Besides three Ava’s Pizzerias, you own two Theo’s Steaks, Sides and Spirits and Hammy’s Burgers & Shakes. How did you get into the restaurant business?

I worked for other people for a long time in technology and sales. Eventually, I decided I wanted to work for myself. I had a house outside of St. Michael’s. There are some pizza places outside of town, but there were none downtown. I thought it was a good fit and I like to cook. I went to the L’Academie de Cuisine (in Gaithersburg). I said to myself, “Let’s take a shot at this.” I went from there.

What causes or charities do you support?

We have a binder that is three inches thick. We love pet charities. I have a burger joint named Hammy after my beagle. We do a sailing program for kids. I go to events, and we do donations with gift cards. We do all the Thanksgiving turkeys for St. Michael’s Community Center. During the pandemic, I did Feed the Front for Talbot and Dorchester counties. We fed the hospital staff lunch.

Detroit Pepperoni Pizza

Yield: 2 each, 6” x 8” pepperoni pizzas. Prep Time: 2.5–3 hours; cook time: 10–14 minutes. *This recipe is adapted from a large batch recipe. Sugar has been added to bloom the yeast.

Dough Recipe

  • 1.5 grams fresh yeast or .4 grams dry yeast
  • 7 grams sugar, granulated
  • 201 grams tap water, room temperature 75–80F
  • 5 grams canola oil
  • 7 grams olive oil
  • 375 grams flour
  • 10 grams salt, kosher
  • 4 Tbsp olive oil and canola oil blended together (to grease pizza pan)

In a bowl mix sugar and yeast with water until yeast is dissolved. Add canola and olive oil to water and mix until frothy. In a separate bowl mix flour and salt. Add water mixture and knead by hand, or use a mixer with a dough hook, until cohesive and smooth. Pour 1 Tbsp of olive oil into each 6” x 8” Detroit-style baking pan. The darker the aluminum, the better. This will give you a better crust. If you do not have Detroit pans, cast iron skillets, or any similar-sized pan with a 2” depth. Divide dough into two 300-gram balls, place in oiled pans, cover loosely and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour. The dough should double in size. Gently stretch the dough into the edges and corners of the pan until it starts to shrink back and won’t stretch any farther. Repeat this process every 15 minutes until the dough does not shrink back from the edges. Cover the pan and let sit in a warm place for 1–2 hours. The longer the dough rests the taller the Detroit Pizza will be.

Making a Pizza

  • 4 Tbsp olive oil and
  • canola oil blended
  • 2 oz grated parmesan
  • 3 oz thin sliced pepperoni
  • 2 oz Wisconsin brick
  • cheese, shredded
  • 2 oz mozzarella
  • cheese, shredded
  • 3 oz tomato sauce (your favorite store-bought or make your-own)

Preheat oven to 500F. Gently lift the rested dough from the pan and drizzle the olive oil and canola oil blend around the edges. Sprinkle grated parmesan around the edge of the dough so it touches the sides of the pan. This is what creates the signature “burnt edge.” Layer pepperoni first on top of the dough. This prevents the pepperoni from burning during the cook time and also helps the pizza retain some extra pepperoni flavor. Spread cheese over the pepperoni. Add two “stripes” of tomato sauce over the cheese. Make sure there is still cheese exposed to get the full caramelized cheese effect. Bake in the oven for 10–14 minutes. Pizza will be done when the internal temperature is 180 degrees. Remove the hot pizza pan from the oven and let it rest for 1 to 2 minutes. This makes it easier to remove the pizza from the pan. Top with more parmesan. Enjoy.

Ava’s Pizzeria & Wine Bar  |  avaspizzeria.com | 409 S. Talbot Street, St. Michaels; 410-745-3081 | 305 High Street, Cambridge; 443-205-4350 | 29 Baltimore Avenue, Rehoboth Beach; 302-212-5458