Meet Your Merchant - St Michaels Winery

Name Of Business: St. Michaels Winery

Location:  609 S. Talbot Street St. Michaels, MD 21663

Website info:  www.st-michaels-winery.com

Facebook:  St Michaels Winery

Phone number:  410-745-0808

Hours of operation:

 SPRING:   Monday – Saturday 11 am - 6 pm 

                   Sunday 11 am – 4 pm

SUMMER: Monday – Thursday 11 am - 6 pm 

                  Friday & Saturday 11 am – 7 pm

                  Sunday 11 am – 4 pm

FALL:        Monday – Thursday 11 am - 5 pm 

                  Friday & Saturday 11 am – 6 pm

                  Sunday 11 am – 4 pm

WINTER:   Monday – Saturday 11 am - 5 pm 

                  Sunday 11 am – 4 pm

Who are the owners?

Mark Emon and Lori Cuthbert

How and why you started your business?  

Mark and Lori started the winery when they moved to town in 2005 from the DC Metro area.  Mark was a freelance film editor and had no wine making experience.  But a love of wine and all things local created the building blocks for St. Michaels Winery.

Award winning wines
and special events

What do you sell/make/do?

We make and sell award winning Maryland wines.

St Michaels Winery bottling day

Where is your business located and why did you choose your location?

The tasting room is now located in the Old Sewing Factory Building on Talbot Street.  We are classified as an “urban winery” – ironic in the small town of St.Michaels, we know.  Because the tasting room in located within walking distance of all of the restaurants, shops, and inns/B&Bs, we are able to take advantage of the phenomenal tourist season.

Favorite new
St Michaels Winery
shirts...drink local.

What strategy do you use to draw people to your establishment?

We are extremely fortunate because wineries in general, are popular destinations right now.  The web and social media play a big part in connecting directly with our customers.

What are your strategies for growth in the next year?

We are exceedingly happy with our growth in 2014, and are grateful that trend has continued into 2015.   We are also expanding into a new, related business, Filter Fast, that will service wineries along the east coast. 

St Michaels Winery can be found at many
Maryland wine festivals year round

What is the best thing about running a business here?

St.Michaels is the best of both worlds.  It is a small town in an ideal area that is perfect for raising your family.  It is also a very popular tourist destination that allows local businesses to flourish.

Meet Your Merchant - Ava's Pizzeria and Wine Bar

Name Of Business: Ava’s Pizzeria and Wine Bar

Location: 409 S. Talbot Street, St. Michaels, MD

Website: avaspizzeria.com

Phone number: (410) 745-3081

Hours of operation: Open daily at 11:30

Who are the owners? Chris Agharabi

How and why you started your business?
Chris came to St Michaels from Montgomery County, MD.  Chris attended L'Academie de Cuisine’s professional school in Gaithersburg.

There was an empty building on Talbot Street that fit the bill for a main street pizza place. After extensive renovations that continue to this day, he contacted a fellow chef and classmate to bring on board to help run the kitchen. Ava’s Pizzeria & Wine Bar opened it’s doors in September, 2008.





What do you sell/make/do?  

Ava’s is best known for the thin crust pizza, baked in a wood-burning oven and made with the freshest ingredients available. In addition to pizza, we serve salads, signature sandwiches, our almost famous meatballs, local seafood and pastas and desserts. You will also note a nod to the cuisine of New Orleans, with items like our wasabi oyster po’boy, BBQ shrimp and eastern shore “beignets”. We make everything we possibly can on premise - our dough, salad dressings, desserts, tomato gravy and even our fresh mozzarella.

Where is your business located and why did you chose your location?
We are right on the main street in town, but a couple of blocks up from the central part of St Michaels where most of the shops and restaurants are located. The building was converted from an old goose picking house quite a few years ago. 

When Chris purchased the property, there was already a second building out back, which was converted to a prep kitchen, and room for a small parking area. A small addition was made to the back of the building to make room for the wood-burning pizza oven. Guests can watch our pizza guys in action from the dining room.

What strategies do you use to draw people to your establishment?
We strive to put out a consistently delicious product and like to provide our guests with friendly, prompt and knowledgeable service. We believe that's what keeps people coming back. We have been quite fortunate with word of mouth in the community, as well as travel websites such as Trip Advisor.

Ava’s also employs 40 people year round, and many of our staff have been at Ava’s for a long time.  One has even been here since day one. Many customers like coming back and seeing the same friendly faces.

What is your strategies for growth in the next year?  
We just enclosed our patio with a structure that keeps the rain and cold out during inclement weather, but can be converted back to an open space when the weather is nice. This provides guests with more seating through the winter, which helps reduce the number of people waiting and the wait times, especially on busy holiday weekends.

We also see growth in wedding and corporate event business.  St. Michaels is already a great wedding destination. With more room for event space at both Ava’s and Theo’s Steak House, we are hoping to partner with other businesses to provide packages  for rehearsal dinners, ladies weekends, corporate retreats and family gatherings.

What is the best thing about running a business here? 
Our customers. We have a great local clientele.  St. Michaels residents and businesses have been very supportive of our business from day one, THANK YOU!  

In addition to all sorts of visitors from all over the world, some guests come around the same time every year on their annual or semi-annual trips to the shore. Some of our customers have also reported that they have taken a day trip to St Michaels from the western shore just to come to Ava’s.

Meet Your Merchant - T at the General Store, Royal Oak

Meet Your Merchant - T at the General Store

t at the General Store - Royal Oak

Business:  T at the General Store

Location: 25942 Royal Oak Rd

Website info: www.tatthegeneralstore.com

Phone number: 410-745-8402

Hours of operation:

Tuesday-Thursday 5p-8p

Friday 5p-9p

Saturday 11a-3p & 5p-9p

Sunday 11a-3p

Who are the owners?
James Gordon & Paul Turczynski

How and why you started your business?

Explored the option of opening a tea shop in St. Michaels to take advantage of the fact that Talbot County was lacking an establishment that provided fresh, loose leaf tea. This idea blossomed into opening a full restaurant that would provide a dining experience that was similar to that of a DC area restaurant while providing fresh, local ingredients.


What do you sell/make/do?

Fresh Tea

We sell fresh, loose leaf teas.  We have several different blends that we brew in house (hot or iced), sell in our retail area and online at www.thealthandenergy.com, and also utilize the tea as an ingredient in several dishes.  We also offer a healthy, farm to table brunch and dinner menu.  Catering is also a big aspect of our business now as we can create a made-to-suit menu for any parties/weddings/events/etc.

Where is your business located and why did you chose your location?

T at the General Store is located at 25942 Royal Oak Rd, Easton, MD 21601.  This is the old Royal Oak General Store at the T-intersection of Royal Oak Rd. and Bellevue Rd.  We selected this location because of its history in the community, it’s centrally located between Easton and St. Michaels, and it provides the community of Royal Oak an easy option for dinner and weekend brunch instead of driving all the way into St. Michaels or Easton.

Big Daddy James
 Bloody Mary

What strategies do you use to draw people to your establishment?

Word of mouth has been a huge factor in our growth since opening in August. As more people from the community experience what we have to offer they have been telling people to check us out or bringing them in themselves. The support from the community has been extraordinary. We have also made an effort to create a social media presence and advertise in the local media.

Handmade pastas

What is your strategies for growth in the next year?

We will be focusing on our catering business over the next year to help bolster the business. We will also continue to advertise in the local community and provide our regulars with special options during certain nights of the week. For example, our “Locals’ Special” is for Tuesday-Thursday and provides a delicious entrée for $16.

What is the best thing about running a business here?

The support we have seen from Talbot County is the best part of running a business here. While the area may seem like a larger town, it still has the small town feel and our customers have become regulars and they have also encouraged their friends and family to come by and see us as well. There aren’t many communities like Talbot County and we wouldn’t have it any other way!