San Francisco Herb Co. Spice Shop: Weekdays Only, 10 to 4

San Francisco Herb Co., at 250 14th Street between Mission Street and South Van Ness Avenue, is a wholesale spice house that has kept its doors open to ordinary shoppers since 1973. There is no café, no tasting bar and no weekend trade. The store is open Monday through Friday from 10 am to 4 pm, and it sells spices, herbs and teas in the generous sizes restaurants buy, often a full pound at a time, at prices that make supermarket jars look silly.

The company dates its mission to 1973, when, as its own about page puts it, the fast food industry was on the rise and the founders wanted to steer people toward better, healthier cooking. Over five decades it grew into what the company calls a leader among wholesale herb and spice companies, with a catalog that runs from culinary spices and teas to botanicals and dried flowers, and with plenty of home cooks among the buyers who don't mind a big bag. The warehouse behind and beside the store takes up almost a sixth of a city block.

Neil Hanscomb, one of the original owners, is still named on the site. He became a CPA after serving in Vietnam, calls himself a numbers guy and designed the company's inventory system. The staff even built custom software back in the 1970s to keep orders moving, and the company says most employees have been there for more than ten years. That continuity shows when you ask a question at the counter: the people answering have handled these bags for a long time.

The retail side is called the wholesale outlet, and it is exactly that: rows of shelves stacked with spices and herbs already packed in clear wrapping, so you can see the color and texture of what you are buying before you pay. The company describes walking the aisles as a richly aromatic experience, and it is, because hundreds of bags of cinnamon, cumin, chamomile and lavender share one room. Nothing is scooped to order, so pick up the bag you want and carry it to the register.

Sizes are the big difference from a neighborhood spice shop. Most culinary spices come in one-pound bags, and some herbs and flowers come in four- or eight-ounce bags. That is a lot of oregano for a two-person household, so this store works best for staples you burn through, for baking season, or for splitting with friends. If you are new to buying in bulk, the staff are there to help you judge how much a pound of a given spice really is.

The prices are the headline. On the company's own catalog, a pound of cinnamon powder is $9.55, a pound of Albanian juniper berries is $11.25, and a pound of cut hibiscus flowers is $7.80. Whole Mexican allspice berries are $11.90 a pound, and annatto, or achiote, seed is $7.95 a pound, the same seed you need for cochinita pibil and many Filipino dishes. Tea and herb buyers can pick up eight ounces of chamomile flowers for $6.95 or Super Blue lavender buds for $7.40.

Butterfly pea flowers, the ones that turn drinks deep blue and then purple with a squeeze of lemon, are $7.80 for four ounces. The catalog also lists quantity pricing for multiple bags of the same item, and the website offers a 10 percent volume discount on a $200 subtotal or 15 percent at $500. For a restaurant, a baker preparing holiday orders, or a group of friends splitting a list, those breaks add up quickly.

The schedule is the one thing that catches people out. The store keeps weekday hours only and is closed on weekends and major holidays, so a Saturday spice run will not work here. Arrive well before 4 pm, because the doors close then. Calling ahead on a weekday is the simplest way to ask whether a particular item is in stock before you cross town, since the catalog runs to hundreds of items and a wasted trip on a weekday afternoon is easy to avoid.

Bring a sturdy tote or a box, especially if you are buying several pounds, because the bags are big and the store is built for volume rather than gift wrapping. If you cook from one cuisine a lot, a pound of whole seeds such as allspice or juniper will keep its flavor far longer than the same weight of ground powder, so lean toward whole spices and grind small amounts at home.

The store sits in a working stretch of the northeast Mission where warehouses, auto shops and new apartment buildings mix. Walk a few blocks south on Mission Street to 16th Street and you reach the 16th Street Mission BART plaza and the busiest part of the neighborhood, with taquerias, panaderías and produce markets. Rainbow Grocery, the worker-owned co-op with its own bulk spice aisle, is a short walk northeast at 13th and Folsom if you want to compare.

For a longer loop, continue west to Valencia Street, then south to Clarion Alley between 17th and 18th Streets, where the walls are covered in rotating murals painted by local artists. Mission Dolores Park is a few blocks beyond. Drop your spice bags at home first if you plan a long afternoon, since a pound of cumin in a warm tote makes itself known. If you only have an hour, the BART plaza is the quickest way back downtown, and the Mission Street buses run frequently all day.

San Francisco Herb Co., 250 14th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, between Mission Street and South Van Ness Avenue. Phone: 800-227-4530. Store hours: Monday to Friday, 10 am to 4 pm. Closed weekends and major holidays. Products come prepackaged in clear bags, mostly by the pound. Online orders of $200 and $500 earn volume discounts. Transit: 16th Street Mission BART is the closest station, and the 14 Mission bus runs along Mission Street. Ask Karpo in the Karpo APP to pair a weekday spice haul with lunch in the Mission.