SOS Chefs Spice Shop on Avenue B: Go Before 4 PM

SOS Chefs, at No. 104 on Avenue B in the East Village, is a spice shop that keeps chef's hours: it opens Tuesday to Friday from 9 am to 4 pm and Saturday from 10 am to 4 pm, so an after-work visit is out. The store was founded in 1996 and stocks hundreds of spices, peppers, oils and vinegars. Whole Mexican chiles such as ancho and guajillo cost $12 for 4 ounces, and Tellicherry peppercorns are $8 for 2 ounces.

The shop's own story says it began in 1996 as a small wholesale business in the East Village, supplying professional kitchens. Its founder is Atef Boulaabi, who is from Tunisia, and amNY reported that the name stands for Save Our Spices and that she found the Avenue B storefront on an aimless walk past a for-rent sign. She runs it with her husband, Adam Berkowitz, and still describes herself as a curator of rare products rather than a grocer.

That wholesale origin still shapes the room. Restaurant cooks come in with lists for specific peppercorns or chiles, and home cooks follow them for the same jars. amNY counted more than 375 spices from Syria, Turkey, North Africa, Sri Lanka, Mexico and Indonesia, alongside about 50 vinegars made in-house. The store calls itself a source of hundreds of carefully chosen products, including truffle products, honey, tea and kitchenware.

Peppercorns are where SOS Chefs shows its range, and they are worth comparing side by side. Malabar black peppercorns and Tellicherry peppercorns each cost $8 for 2 ounces, and the Tellicherry are larger and more fragrant. Red Szechuan peppercorns, the numbing kind, are $15 an ounce, and pink peppercorns are also $15 an ounce. Indonesian long pepper, a cone-shaped spice that tastes like black pepper with a sweet edge, is $15 for 2 ounces.

For heat, the chile selection runs from Mexico to Italy. Whole ancho, guajillo, pasilla and árbol chiles are each $12 for 4 ounces, which is enough for a pot of mole or a few batches of salsa. Aleppo pepper is $8 for 2 ounces, crushed red pepper is $8 for 2 ounces, and cayenne is $6 for 2 ounces. The Calabrian chili powder at $20 for 2 ounces costs more than most of the shelf, but its fruity, bright heat is hard to find elsewhere in the city.

Two items are worth asking about because they are hard to find elsewhere. Cheveux d'ange, or angel hair chili threads, are thin red strands used to garnish plates, at $12 an ounce, and peri peri peppers, the small African bird's eye chile, are also $12 an ounce. A pinch of the chili threads on a plate of eggs or noodles is a cheap way to make it look restaurant-made.

Beyond chiles, the shelf of flower waters and extracts is what pastry cooks come for. The house orange blossom, lavender and jasmine waters, labeled Maison, are $20 for 8 ounces, and concentrated extracts such as orange blossom, mandarin and orchid are $55 for 30 milliliters. Piment d'Espelette, the mild Basque chile, sells at $20 for 10 grams, and grains of paradise, a peppery West African seed, cost $15 for 2 ounces. The tea shelf is small but serious, with the SOS Chai blend at $15 an ounce and Lapsang Souchong at $10 an ounce. Basil seeds, the kind that swell into tiny gel pearls in drinks like falooda, are $8 for 3 ounces, and dried Turkish figs are $20 a pound.

Go with a list. The storefront is small, the range is deep, and saying what you plan to cook gets you a more useful answer than asking what is good. Prices are per jar size, usually 1, 2 or 4 ounces, so start with the smallest jar of anything new. The online store sells the same items if you would rather avoid the trip.

Timing matters more than at most shops because of the short hours. Saturday is the only weekend day it opens, and the door closes at 4 pm sharp, which catches out brunch crowds walking over from Avenue A. The contact page also notes an annual summer break, listed as August 15 to September 6, so don't plan a late-summer visit.

One honest note: SOS Chefs is not the place for cheap bulk staples. If you need a pound of cumin or turmeric for everyday cooking, a large Indian grocer will be cheaper. Come here for the peppercorns, chiles and specialty items you can't get elsewhere, and buy everyday spices somewhere else. If the shop is closed, Kalustyan's, at 123 Lexington Avenue in Curry Hill, is open until 8 pm on weekdays and Saturdays and has a broad spice range.

Avenue B runs along the east side of Tompkins Square Park, so the park is right there when you leave. Walk in from the Avenue B side to reach the dog run, the old elms and the chess tables, and on Sundays the Tompkins Square Greenmarket sets up on the Avenue A side. Pick a bench and sort through the jars before you head home, since the peppercorns smell best freshly opened.

The blocks around the shop are full of East Village community gardens, small green lots planted by neighbors that open their gates on weekends in the warmer months. From there, walk west toward Second Avenue for a late lunch at Veselka, at 144 Second Avenue, the Ukrainian diner that has served pierogi in the neighborhood since 1954. You can also walk the length of St. Marks Place back toward Astor Place and the subway.

SOS Chefs, Avenue B (No. 104), New York, NY 10009. Phone: 212-505-5813. Email: info@sos-chefs.com. Hours: Tuesday to Friday 9 am to 4 pm, Saturday 10 am to 4 pm. The nearest subway stops are First Avenue on the L line and Second Avenue on the F line, each about a 10-minute walk. Prices quoted here are from the store's online shop at sos-chefs.com.