Coconut Grove Spice Shop Open at 9 AM: Original Daily Bread

The Original Daily Bread Marketplace, at 2400 SW 27th Street in Coconut Grove, is where Grove cooks go for Middle Eastern and Greek pantry goods, spices included. The shelves carry spices, cheeses, olives, olive oils, nuts and dried fruit, and a food counter and pastry case fill the rest of the room. It opens at 9 am Monday through Saturday and closes at 8 pm, with Sunday hours of 11 am to 5 pm.

The marketplace says it has been owned and operated by the Mazzawi family for more than 40 years, and that the family has been dishing up Middle Eastern food at Daily Bread since 1975. That long run shows in the reviews the shop features on its own homepage, including one from a customer who says he has been coming for 30 years. The family also runs a large catering department that supplies hotels, restaurants, schools, clubs and churches.

Because of that wholesale side, the market works at volume, and the shelves are restocked with the kind of ingredients a catering kitchen goes through every day. For a home cook that means fresher turnover on staples like olive oil, nuts and spices than a supermarket's international aisle tends to offer. It also means the counter staff are used to questions about what goes into a dish.

The marketplace describes its retail side simply: fine Middle Eastern and Greek specialties, such as cheeses, olives, olive oils, nuts, dry fruits and spices. There is no published shelf list or spice price list online, so treat the visit as a browse. Look for the spices that carry the cuisine, read the origin on each package, and buy small amounts of anything you have not cooked with before.

Nuts and dried fruit sit alongside the spices, and they are worth a look if you bake. Pistachios, walnuts and cashews are the backbone of the pastries sold at the dessert counter, so after tasting a piece of baklava or mammoul you will know which nuts you want to bake with at home. Buy a bag of nuts with a jar of good olive oil and you have the base for a Levantine pantry.

One reviewer quoted on the homepage singles out the olive bar, and the menu lets you taste before you commit: pitted kalamata olives are $1.00 for 3 ounces as a side, feta is $1.50 for 2 ounces, and labneh, the thick strained yogurt, is $3.75 for 8 ounces. Pick up a tub of labneh and a bag of za'atar from the shelves, and a bowl of labneh with olive oil and herbs becomes an easy breakfast.

The kitchen also shows how to use the spice shelf. The zaater fries, a side order at $3.99, are the quickest taste of the thyme, sumac and sesame blend. The kibbie wrap, $9.99, wraps a fried cracked wheat shell stuffed with ground beef, pine nuts, onions and spices, and the mujaddara, rice cooked with lentils, is $3.50 for 8 ounces. Order one of these at the counter and you will know which bags to buy.

At the dessert counter, the pastries are filo, nuts and syrup in many shapes. Walnut baklava is $1.99 a piece and pistachio baklava $2.25, while the Turkish and Greek versions are $2.75 each. The bird nest pistachio is $1.99, and a long-time customer quoted on the shop's site tells readers to get one on the way out. Mammoul, the date, walnut or pistachio cookie, is $2.75, and a piece of kataifi is also $2.75.

A box of mixed pastries makes a good gift if you are visiting someone in Miami, and the menu notes that special orders need four days' notice by phone. For larger parties, the catering menu sells hummus and baba ganoush at $7.00 a pound with a three-pound minimum, and spanakopita at $2.50 each with a minimum of 12.

The food counter makes it easy to turn a shopping trip into lunch. A falafel wrap is $8.99 and a grilled chicken wrap $11.99, each in pita with lettuce, tomato and pickled cabbage and a choice of sauce, from tahini and tzatziki to shatta, the hot sauce. Platters come with three sides, and the lamb kafta platter is $16.50. Reviewers on the homepage mention plenty of seating, so you can eat before you shop.

Mornings, when the store first opens at 9 am on weekdays, are the easiest time to browse the aisles before the lunch rush. On Sundays the hours are shorter, from 11 am to 5 pm. Online ordering for pickup and delivery covers the kitchen menu, but the spices and olive bar are a walk-in experience, so plan to go in person if the pantry is the reason for the trip.

The marketplace sits on the north side of Coconut Grove, close to US-1. From here it is a short drive or bike ride south into the Grove's village center, where CocoWalk and the bayfront Peacock Park are clustered together on the water. If you want a garden visit, Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, the Italian Renaissance-style estate on Biscayne Bay, is a short drive north along South Miami Avenue.

On a Saturday, combine the trip with the Coconut Grove farmers market on Grand Avenue for herbs and produce, then come back for spices and olive oil. Parsley, mint and lemons from the market and a bag of spices from Daily Bread are enough for tabouli, fattoush and a tray of roasted chicken.

The Original Daily Bread Marketplace, 2400 SW 27th Street, Miami, FL 33133, in Coconut Grove. Email: contact@dailybreadmarketplace.com. Hours: Monday to Saturday 9 am to 8 pm, Sunday 11 am to 5 pm. Prices in this article are from the online menu at dailybreadmarketplace.com. Catering orders and online pickup are available through the website.