Pier 39 Spice Shop: 85 Hand-Mixed Blends, Open Until 9

The Spice & Tea Exchange of San Francisco is the one spice shop you can walk into on a Fisherman's Wharf afternoon, tucked into unit 204 on Pier 39. It is open every day from 10 am to 9 pm, and its pitch is simple: more than 85 handcrafted seasonings that staff hand-mix in the store each day, plus loose-leaf teas, flavored salts and sugars. If you are visiting the sea lions and want a food souvenir that is actually useful at home, this is where to get it.

The Spice & Tea Exchange is a national chain of small shops, but each store is run by a local owner, and the San Francisco location's page says it is proudly owned and operated by Blair Woodmancy. That matters on the shop floor. The staff behind the counter mix the house blends here rather than shipping them in finished, and they are used to fielding questions from cooks who want to know what goes into a rub before buying it. Pier 39 describes the shop as a place to explore savory spices, gourmet teas and seasonings, and the store's own page mentions its tea bar.

The location is the other part of the story. Pier 39 has been one of San Francisco's busiest visitor spots since it opened in 1978, a wooden pier lined with two levels of small shops and restaurants, with the sea lions hauled out on the floating docks at its western edge. A spice shop is an unusual neighbor for saltwater taffy and souvenir sweatshirts, and that is part of its appeal: it is the one stop on the pier where locals also buy something.

Seafood rubs fit the setting. On the brand's online shop, the Northwest Salmon Rub costs $5.79 for a one-ounce bag or $14.99 in a 2.3-ounce flip-top jar, and the Salmon Tea Rub, which blends tea into the seasoning, has the same one-ounce price. Lemon-Garlic Pepper Seasoning is $7.79 for a one-ounce bag, a sensible all-purpose shake for fish, chicken and roasted vegetables. If you want to try several, the Fisherman's Sampler is $17.99 and the Garlic Lover's Sampler is $18.99.

The salt shelf is the most photogenic. Black Lava Sea Salt is $5.89 for a 1.5-ounce bag, and Saffron Fleur de Sel, a finishing salt tinted gold by saffron, is $12.79 for the same size. These small bags travel well in a suitcase and weigh almost nothing, so they make better souvenirs than another T-shirt. A salt and a rub that match, say the black lava salt with the salmon rub, make a neat pair for a cook back home. Tea drinkers can choose from the loose-leaf wall: Roasted Coffee Pu-erh is $17.99 for a two-ounce bag, and the Marrakesh Mint tin with an infuser is $24.99, a ready-made gift.

Most blends come in three sizes: a small bag, a large bag and a flip-top jar, and the bags cost much less per ounce than the jars. If you already own spice jars at home, buy the bags. Tell the staff what you cook most often and how much heat you like, because the point of a hand-mixed blend shop is to be steered toward something you will use rather than a novelty you will forget in the cupboard.

The store also takes orders by phone and ships nationwide, and the San Francisco page notes a free gift on phone orders. That is useful if you fall for a blend on vacation and run out back home. Keep your receipt or take a photo of the label so you can reorder the exact blend later, since the chain sells many similar rubs with small differences in heat and salt.

Pier 39 gets crowded from late morning on weekends and through the summer, and the shop is small. Go at 10 am, when the pier is quiet, or come after dinner: the shop stays open until 9 pm, and the evening is when the pier's crowds thin out and you can browse without bumping elbows. Weekday mornings in the off-season are the calmest of all. The unit number, 204, puts the shop on the pier's upper level, so head upstairs rather than circling the ground-floor arcade. Pair the visit with a look at the sea lions on the floating docks at the western end of the pier.

Parking at the wharf is expensive, so most visitors arrive by the F Market & Wharves historic streetcar, which runs along the Embarcadero and stops at the foot of the pier. Cable cars on the Powell-Mason line end a few blocks inland near Bay Street and Taylor Street, which makes a cable car ride and a spice stop an easy pairing.

From Pier 39, stroll west along the waterfront toward Jefferson Street. Boudin's flagship bakery at 160 Jefferson Street is the classic place to watch sourdough being shaped through the windows, and a bread bowl of chowder makes the obvious lunch. Continue past the fishing boats of the inner lagoon to the Musée Mécanique, the free-entry arcade of antique coin-operated machines on Pier 45.

Keep walking west and you reach Ghirardelli Square at 900 North Point Street, the old chocolate factory turned shopping plaza, with views over Aquatic Park and the Hyde Street Pier's historic ships. From there the Powell-Hyde cable car climbs back over Russian Hill toward Union Square, a scenic way to carry your spice bags home.

The Spice & Tea Exchange of San Francisco, Pier 39, unit 204, San Francisco, CA 94133. Phone: (415) 393-0401. Hours: Monday to Sunday, 10 am to 9 pm. More than 85 house seasonings are hand-mixed in the store, and there is a tea bar. Phone orders ship nationwide and come with a free gift. Getting there: the F Market & Wharves streetcar stops at the foot of the pier. Ask Karpo in the Karpo APP to plan a Fisherman's Wharf afternoon that ends with a spice stop.