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Bring Penzeys to Seattle (or Pendery's)
In article >,
(Bruce Burger) wrote:
> Are they better than the spice place in Pike Place Market?
>
> Just checking. The Penzey's store I've been to (in Minneapolis) seemed
> bigger than the place in the market, but not being a frequent customer
> of either, I'm not sure how their selection or quality compare.
Cindy and I have only been to the spice place in Pike Place Market a
couple of times. Maybe we bought some tea there, I'm not sure. So I
hesitate to make any conclusions. But my impression, from looking
around, is that much of their stuff looks like it's been sitting around
for quite a while, and often in big non-hermetic containers.
I don't know how Penzey's warehouses their spices in their retail
stores. But the stuff we get from them via mailorder arrives in nice
screwtop jars, or sealed plastic bags. The products are usually fresh
and of high quality. Perhaps Penzey's sales volume means that they have
a high turnover. The other nice thing about Penzey's (at least the mail
order operation) is that their selection is enormous. For each spice
there are often many different variants, from different parts of the
world. Lots of paprikas, peppercorns, cinnamons, etc.
I don't know if the Penzey's retail stores will be able to maintain the
same turnover and variety as their mailorder service. When we lived on
the east coast, I sometimes bought Starbucks coffee (unground beans) via
mailorder. The beans I bought via mail order were usually fresher than
the stuff I sold at the Starbucks shop only a mile away from our house.
A couple of times, when I got obviously stale beans, I complained to the
manager in that shop. He insisted that all the coffee he sold was only
a few days from roasting, but I am virtually certain he was lying. In
any case, I switched to other vendors as my primary sources (Peet's,
Caffe d'Arte) and used Starbucks only for emergency resupplies.
If we can't get Penzey's to come to Seattle, maybe we should try to
convince Pendery's to open a store here. Note that the spelling is
close enough to be confusing, but they are not the same. Cindy and I
discovered Pendery's when we lived in Dallas. It was a small shop,
selling spices and Texas specialties. They are most famous for their
extensive selection of chiles: whole and ground, varietals and blends.
If you like serious Texas-style chili, this is a good place to buy your
spice. I don't know if they still have a retail shop in Dallas, but
they now have a web sto
<http://www.penderys.com>
--
Julian Vrieslander
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