Pie in the Sky: Avalon Pizza Started on a Lark... and It Lasted More Than a Half-Century
There’s an old saying, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” And here’s your proof:
It was sometime in the summer of 1968. It might have been one of those sticky, hot and humid nights – in the time long before a central air conditioner topped every home on the island. And no one felt like cooking. The Buchanan and Damiri families, both from Drexel Hill, Pa., as family tradition would have it, were vacationing in Avalon. There was just one problem: “There wasn’t any place to get a pizza,” Joe Damiri was saying recently.
At a time when Domino’s was still only the name of a game played with numbered tiles, there actually were a couple of places in Avalon to order a pizza: Uncle Joe’s and Tridico’s, both located on or near 21st Street. The problem was that they were both small shops and their hours weren’t always conducive to families looking for pizza takeout for dinner. Between them, the Buchanans and Damiris had 14 mouths to feed. No easy task for takeout in the late-’60s in Avalon.
After so many years everyone’s memories have rightfully faded. “Someone said, we should open our own pizza shop,” says Camille Damiri, adding with a chuckle: “Believe me, it was said on a lark.”
Typically, “on a lark” means spontaneously or for fun. The thought of “opening our own pizza shop,” might have been said on a “lark,” but it would NOT end up being for fun.
“It was a lot of hard work,” Paul Buchanan says. “We all worked hard, and it was a lot of long hours.”
It quickly and unexpectedly evolved from one to two family businesses that served hungry appetites in Avalon and Stone Harbor for more than a half century. The two families operated Avalon Pizza, Stone Harbor Pizza and Circle Pizza for more than 50 years.
And over that five plus decades there was tons of competition. Uncle Joe’s, Tridico’s, Marini’s, BJ’s, Pappy’s, Avalon Pizzeria, Peace of Pizza, Five Brothers, Big Al’s, Tonio’s, Pizza Alley, Tridi-Jo’s, Primavera, Reo’s, and even Domino’s all tried their hand at making and selling pizza on the Seven Mile Beach. Some were very good; others, not so much. But no one did it longer than the Buchanan and Damiri families.
There are still some excellent pizza operations in Avalon and Stone Harbor, but that “lark” of an idea lasted 50-plus years, sold hundreds of thousands of pizzas and sandwiches, and employed hundreds of young people on the Seven Mile Beach. Obviously, they must have been pretty good at what they did.
Paul and Eleonora Buchanan purchased a property at 2319 Ocean Drive after the Great Storm of 1962. Eleonora and Camille Damiri were sisters. The building’s address in 1962 was 2301 and had a history of various commercial operations dating back to when it was constructed in 1930. It was topped by two apartments. The two families set up shop, literally. They converted the first-floor apartment into a pizza shop and restaurant, and lived on the second floor.
Avalon Pizza opened in 1969 serving pizza, hoagies and its signature sandwich, the ovengrinder. The ovengrinder, according to stories told by Paul Buchanan over the years, “was our interpretation of a sandwich we were familiar with from pizza shops back in Delaware County, Pa.”
Over the years, they’d add steak sandwiches, salads, pasta dinners – they even tried their hand at breakfast during the summer of 1975. That same summer, Buchanan expanded the size of the dining room, more than doubling the seating capacity.
More than anything else, it was a family operation. Everyone pitched in. The boys – Greg, Joe, Mark, Paul and Drew – worked in the pizza kitchens while the girls – Linda, Mary Beth, Joanne, Lauren and Lisa – waited tables. The adults – Paul and Eleonora Buchanan, and Joe and Camille Damiri – pitched in wherever necessary and oversaw the operation. Adding a dash of authenticity, there was Mario Vozzella, the family patriarch, with his inviting smile and real-life Italian accent from the old country, sitting at the front counter behind the cash register.
The family operation, along with a small army of friends, locals and summer kids worked well. Although the family had no previous experience, its common-sense approach to the operation still makes sense today: dough made fresh daily for each pizza; all sauces made from scratch; cheese grated fresh each day; cold cuts and vegetables cut fresh every morning, and each sandwich and pizza made fresh to order. Its T-shirts boasted, “Avalon Pizza has pizzaz,” and the business thrived.
The Damiri family moved its part of the business south in 1972 and opened Stone Harbor Pizza, a strictly takeout operation initially, at the foot of the 96th Street Bridge. Stone Harbor, for a time, became the fresh dough-making operation, the foundation of any good pizza operation, for both Avalon and Stone Harbor restaurants.
“I can remember times when we’d fill the trunk with fresh dough balls late at night,” Camille Damiri says. “Then we got home and forgot about them, and they proofed in the car all night.” (“Proofing” means allowing the dough to properly rise at room temperature for up to 3 hours or so before you shape it into a pizza.) She’s able to laugh it about it today, “But back then, it was horrible! Such a waste and our car smelled like yeast forever.” Eventually, fresh dough would be made at each location.
The Damiris expanded their operation in the summer of 1976 after the owners of Hahn’s decided to sell a property next to the Shelter Haven. The expanded kitchen space and dining room also brought an expanded menu, much like that in Avalon. The Damiri family would continue to operate the Stone Harbor location until 2005, when it sold the location to their nephew, Drew Buchanan. Today that location is the Stone Harbor Pizza Pub.
Timing is everything. In 1973, when the drinking age in Pennsylvania was still 21, the state of New Jersey lowered it to 18, allowing the nightclub business to blossom – especially at the Jersey Shore. Avalon Pizza adjusted its business model to cater to the new, large number of patrons exiting clubs on the Seven Mile Beach late at night. Instead of closing at 11:30pm, it stayed open until 2am Sunday through Thursday and 3:30am on Friday, Saturday and holidays. The after-nightclub set would religiously pack both the takeout and restaurant sides of the operation. The restaurant’s volumes continued to grow.
In 1978, Paul Buchanan expanded the Avalon operation two blocks north, purchasing a property that had been in the family for decades. The structure had been built by a family relative in 1923 at 21st Street and Dune Drive. It was at this location that Circle Pizza opened. Specifically targeting the “grab-and-go” consumer, Circle Pizza offered something that the original location didn’t: pizza by the slice. The sheer volume at the Ocean Drive location dictated sales by full pies only. At Circle Pizza, a customer could order a sandwich, a full pizza, or pizza by the slice. Signage promised, “A slice is nice.” Perhaps, but it would take several years for volumes to build in the new shop.
The two Avalon operations would work side by side for several years. Then, in 1993 the Buchanans left the Ocean Drive location and it was permanently converted into Via Mare Restaurant. Circle Pizza continued to operate under the direction of three of Buchanan’s sons: Greg, Paul and Drew. Greg spent a considerable amount of time at Circle Pizza until he opened his own restaurant offshore. Then, his younger brother Drew stepped in and ran it for more than 25 years until 2021. Drew expanded the operation to adjacent properties on both 21st Street and Dune Drive while diversifying the menu offerings beyond pizza in the growing complex.
Finally, after the summer of 2021, Drew Buchanan decided it was time for a change.
“My kids weren’t interested in the business,” he says from his home in Florida. “They have other interests. For me, it was time for a change. The business had changed. It was more difficult to find and keep help. The right offer came along, and it was the right time for me.”
So, on Oct. 1, 2021, Circle Pizza and the adjacent properties changed hands and with that, a 54-year family tradition ended. What began as a “lark” a half century earlier came to a successful conclusion.
Making the Avalon and Stone Harbor Pizza stories even more extraordinary: According to the Bureau of Labor statistics, approximately 20% of all small businesses fail within the first year. And by the end of 10 years, only 30% of businesses will remain; that’s a 70% failure rate. This “lark” beat the odds and soared for more than a half-century. In the summer of 2022, a new family has already begun to write its own distinct legacy and tradition. And it all started on a lark.
Editor’s Note (full disclosure): The Buchanan and Damiri families had no idea in 1968 what impact their “lark” of an idea might have on the lives of others. We don’t know about everyone else, but we can tell you about the lasting impact on two 14-year-olds who first met when they were hired by Paul Buchanan at Avalon Pizza in 1974: After more years than they’d care to admit, it has produced a long and healthy marriage, three children and five grandchildren, and today the two former 14-year-olds own and publish Seven Mile Times.