Savory Spice Shop owner Karen Aboussie Credit: Photo by John Anderson

Savory Spice Shop

101B W. Sixth, 524-1093
www.savoryspiceshop.com

“Variety’s the very spice of life, that gives it all its flavor.”
– Euripides

Euripides would probably approve of the Savory Spice Shop; it’s got variety, spices, flavors, and owner Karen Aboussie‘s infectious zest for life. On a busy stretch of West Sixth Street that’s developing a distinct culinary character, you can smell this place even before opening the door. Like an aromatic spice chest, the small, wood-lined shop is seasoned by more than 400 spices, herbs, extracts, chiles, and blends filling the shelves.

Opened in November 2010, this is a browser’s and taster’s paradise. The store is divided into zones of flavor, with sections for salts, vanillas, peppers, sugars, and chiles, as well as regionally grouped spice families from the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Mexico. There are seasoning blends like curries and barbecue rubs, as well as some intriguing cheese, tomato, and honey powders.

Aboussie encourages visitors to taste anything, then brush any remains onto the floor to add to the aromatic ambiance. “Our motto is, ‘Taste what you want; buy what you need.'” You can purchase a pound or a quarter-ounce; when you buy a jar, you’re invited to bring it back for an ecologically friendly refill.

A Wichita Falls native and UT graduate, Aboussie followed her nose and taste buds into the world of spices after a 35-year career in corporate marketing. In 2006, she traveled to India to explore importing spices to the United States. “It was overwhelming,” she found, “too much for one person.” Then, in 2008, she found her perfect model in Denver at the Savory Spice Shop mother ship, and two years later, she opened the Austin franchise to an immediately lively trade.

“We’ve had a great response from the community,” Abous­sie says. “People here are so interested in flavor, in cooking for themselves, and in giving consumable gifts.” She and her staff are full of spice lore and facts, plus storage and cooking tips. Once a month, they host Savory Chef Night, where local chefs demo spice-centric cooking.

This article appears in March 25 • 2011.

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MM Pack is a food writer/historian and private chef who divides her time between Austin and San Francisco. A regular contributor to The Austin Chronicle and Edible Austin, she’s been published in Gastronomica, The San Francisco Chronicle, Oxford Encyclopedia of Food & Drink in America, Nation’s Restaurant News, Scribner's Encyclopedia of Food and Culture, The Dictionary of Culinary Biography, and Southern Foodways Alliance’s Cornbread Nation 1.