Pinecrest Spice Shop With Za'atar and Pita: Daily Bread

Daily Bread is a family-run Middle Eastern market and kitchen at 12131 S Dixie Hwy in Pinecrest, and for south Miami-Dade cooks it doubles as a spice shop. The aisles carry what the family calls an extensive range of robust spices, alongside dried fruits, yogurts, sweets and packaged goods from Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Greece and Israel. The market is open Monday to Saturday from 10 am to 8 pm and Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm.

The Mazzawi family opened Daily Bread in 1978, and the store has served customers at the same location ever since. In a VoyageMIA interview republished on the shop's site, co-owner Nicolas Mazzawi traces it to his grandfather, Norman Mazzawi, who came to Miami and ran a sandwich deli in the old Miami Herald building before taking over a small shop called Daily Bread at 17th Avenue and US-1.

Nicolas's father, Toufic Mazzawi, trained as an optometrist, then moved home and opened his own Daily Bread in Pinecrest. He hired Rima to help run the store, and the two later married. Today Nicolas and his brother Shaddy manage the shop and are often behind the register. The interview says the store is now four times its original size and grew from one sandwich on the menu to more than 40 items.

This is a grocer, not a jar-and-scoop boutique, so the spices come packed and ready to go on the shelves rather than weighed to order. That makes it a good place to stock up on the staples of a Levantine kitchen in sizes that make sense for weekly cooking. The website does not publish a spice list or shelf prices, so walk the aisle with a recipe in mind and read the country of origin on each bag.

Beyond the spice bags, the market page points shoppers to dried fruits, fresh creamy yogurts and sweets, and the shelves are stocked for people cooking the food of their own heritage as much as for curious newcomers. If you are new to the cuisine, build a basket around one dish, such as a lentil soup or a tray of roasted chicken, and buy the spices, dried fruit and yogurt that go with it rather than a dozen bags at once.

The kitchen is the best guide to what to buy. Za'atar, the thyme, sumac and sesame blend, shows up all over the menu: on the pita chips served with hummus or baba ghanoush, on the Greek Fries at $6.50, and on the loaded DB Fries with gyro, feta and olives at $8.50. Taste it on a plate first, then pick up a bag in the market to scatter over eggs, labneh or roasted vegetables at home.

For something more filling, the Supreme Rice Bowl is $17.99. You choose rice pilaf or mujadara, the lentil-and-rice dish, add a protein, and it comes topped with hummus, tabouli, kalamata olives and a dusting of za'atar. The shop's news page also notes that Eater Miami named Daily Bread among its stellar places to eat in Pinecrest in 2022, which is a sign of how much of its reputation rests on the kitchen as well as the shelves.

Spices are only half the reason to stop. Daily Bread bakes its pita bread from scratch, and Nicolas Mazzawi says that if you come in the morning or afternoon you can watch it being baked at the front of the store. The fresh pita is sold to go at $5.00 for a bag of five loaves, with a limit of two bags per order, so arrive earlier in the day if you want the loaves still warm.

The to-go case covers the rest of a mezze spread. A pound of hummus is $9.50 and a pound of labna, the strained yogurt, is $6.25. Baklava with walnuts or pistachios is $2.99 a piece, and lady fingers of rolled fillo with pine nuts and cashews are $1.50. Put a bag of za'atar, a tub of labna and a bag of pita in the basket and breakfast for the week is covered.

Weekday mornings are the calmest time to browse the shelves, and you can catch the pita baking. Lunch is busier, since the kitchen also serves platters, sandwiches and rice bowls for dine-in, takeout and delivery. On Sunday the store keeps shorter hours, from 11 am to 5 pm, so plan any Sunday shopping for the early afternoon. The shop runs a loyalty program, DB Rewards, that gives points and discounts on purchases.

Daily Bread sits on US-1, the main commercial spine of Pinecrest. The South Dade TransitWay bus corridor runs alongside US-1, which makes the store reachable by bus from Dadeland. For a green break after shopping, drive or cycle west to Pinecrest Gardens on Red Road, the village's botanical park and the former site of Parrot Jungle, where banyan trees and boardwalks shade the paths.

If you are heading north instead, Dadeland Mall and the shops around Kendall Drive are a short drive up US-1. Pair the trip with a stop at a nearby produce stand for fresh herbs, since parsley, mint and lemons are what turn a bag of za'atar and a pound of hummus into a full Levantine spread at home.

Daily Bread, 12131 S Dixie Hwy, Pinecrest, FL 33156. Email: contact@dailybreadmiami.com. Hours: Monday to Saturday 10 am to 8 pm, Sunday 11 am to 5 pm. Delivery, takeout and catering are available. Menu prices in this article come from the shop's online menu at dailybreadmiami.com, and its market page lists the countries its products come from.