Other Avenues Spice Shop by Ocean Beach: 150 Bulk Spices

Other Avenues, at 3930 Judah Street between 44th and 45th Avenues, is the Outer Sunset's spice shop hiding inside a neighborhood grocery. The worker-owned co-op keeps a section of more than 150 bulk herbs, spices and teas, all organic, and you scoop exactly as much as you need. It is open seven days a week from 8 am to 9 pm, a few blocks from Ocean Beach, and it is the easiest way on the west side of San Francisco to buy a tablespoon of fenugreek instead of a whole jar.

The store opened in 1974, started by participants in the Food Conspiracy, a grassroots network of food-buying clubs that bought wholesale and split it among members. Those clubs grew into more than a dozen storefronts plus a warehouse, and together they called themselves the People's Food System, with the motto Food for people, not for profit. By the 1990s most of those stores had closed. Other Avenues is the one still trading, which is why locals treat it as a piece of Sunset history as much as a grocery.

Shoppers always called it a co-op, but it formally incorporated as a worker-owned cooperative in 1999. Only workers are members, and they run the business democratically with what the store calls a super-consensus model. In 2018 the Board of Supervisors added Other Avenues to the city's Legacy Business registry, which is reserved for small businesses that have operated in San Francisco for more than 40 years. Co-owner Emily Huston has written the full history, which the store links from its own site.

The spice wall is the reason to make the trip. The co-op describes it as over 150 bulk offerings, organic whole and ground spices and seasoning blends, sourced from organic, fair-trade and small-scale herb and tea purveyors based mostly along the West Coast. In practice that means you can buy whole cumin to toast yourself, a few grams of a blend you have never tried, or enough cinnamon to bake for a month. The same section stocks fine boxed teas and loose herbs for brewing, so tea drinkers end up here too.

Next to it, the Bulk and Coffee department adds more than 700 products, from grains and legumes to flours, nuts and chocolate. It is also where the liquid staples live: you can bring bottles and fill them with olive oil, local honey, maple syrup, vinegars or vanilla extract. The vanilla comes from Singing Dog in Eugene, Oregon, and the olive oil from Seka Hills in Brooks, California, both named on the store's department page. For a spice-focused shop, that vanilla tap alone is worth knowing about.

Bring your own containers. The co-op actively encourages customers to bring jars and bags to cut down on waste, and a small set of clean spice jars is the smartest thing to carry if you are restocking a kitchen. Fill small amounts first when you are testing a new blend, since whole spices keep far longer than ground ones and a pantry of half-used powders loses its punch within months. If you cook from one cuisine a lot, buy the whole seeds and grind as you go.

Discounts are generous and clearly posted. Shoppers aged 60 and over get 5 percent off every day, and anyone paying fully or partly with EBT gets 10 percent off, as long as you mention it to the cashier before checkout. Regulars buy the Red Card: it costs $50, lasts six months and takes 5 percent off groceries every visit. Paying $100 validates it for a full year, and the co-op adds an extra month free, so it pays off for anyone who spends more than $150 a month here.

The store keeps the same long day every day of the week, but it closes completely on two days a year: Martin Luther King Jr. Day and May 1, which the co-op marks as International Workers' Day. Plan around those if you are crossing town. Weekday mornings are the calmest time for the bulk aisle. Late afternoons on sunny weekends get busier, when beachgoers and surfers coming off Ocean Beach stop in for snacks and the checkout lines grow.

Fog is the Outer Sunset's default weather, so bring a layer even if it is warm downtown. The co-op is a neighborhood store rather than a supermarket, so arrive with a list. Staff in each department are worker-owners, and the spice and tea buyers are good people to ask for a recommendation on a blend or a tea for a cold.

From the store, walk a few blocks west along Judah Street to the Great Highway and Ocean Beach, a long stretch of sand that is usually windy and cold but spectacular at sunset. The blocks of Judah between the co-op and the beach hold small surf shops, bakeries and cafes that make the outer avenues feel like their own small town. North of Judah, the western end of Golden Gate Park and its restored Dutch Windmill are an easy walk away.

If you want a longer outing, the beach path runs south toward the Sunset Dunes park on the former Upper Great Highway, which closed to cars and reopened as open space. Walkers, cyclists and dog owners share it, and it pairs well with a picnic built from the co-op's deli and bakery shelves. Head back to the store by Judah Street and pick up your spices last so they don't sit in a warm bag all afternoon.

Other Avenues Food Store, 3930 Judah Street, San Francisco, CA 94122, between 44th and 45th Avenues. Phone: (415) 661-7475. Hours: 8 am to 9 pm, seven days a week. Closed Martin Luther King Jr. Day and May 1. Bring your own jars and bags for the bulk section. Discounts include 5 percent for shoppers 60 and over, 10 percent with EBT, and the $50 six-month Red Card. Getting there: the N-Judah stops right outside, the 18 bus runs a couple of blocks away, and bike parking sits beside the parklet. Ask Karpo in the Karpo APP to plan a beach-and-errands afternoon around Judah Street.