Penzeys spices up D.C. area with Rockville store

Rockville (Map, News) - D.C. home cooks clamoring for five types of cinnamon, six types of sausage seasoning and nine types of curry powder now have a place to indulge their culinary desires.

Penzeys, a national spice chain known primarily through its catalogs and online merchandising, opened its first branch in the D.C. area in Rockville a month ago and has another planned for Falls Church.

“It’s the first metropolitan area where we’ve opened more than one store at the same time,” Penzeys spokeswoman Margie Gibbons said.

The store prides itself on offering a wide selection of fresh spices at affordable prices, Rockville store manage Bob Liebel said Friday. “We place an order every week, and we’re not allowed to keep anything in the store for more than for three weeks.”

Popular selections include the store’s Foxpoint blend, which combines shallots, chives, garlic, onions, salt and pepper.

“It goes well with everything but ice cream,” said Liebel, who has tried it on every type of meat, and in omelets and sour cream.

The store provides free recipe handouts throughout the store to encourage customers to branch out and try new things, such as a Zatar spice blend from the Middle East or the Indian spice charnushka.

The company sent out 6,000 postcards to catalog and online customers in the area before the store launched, Liebel said.

Its opening was a popular topic on area food-related discussion boards. Jacquilynne Schlesier, community manager for the online food forum Chowhound, said the site had six chat threads devoted to the topic of the store’s arrival.

“Penzeys attracts a huge amount of attention everywhere it goes,” Schlesier said.

Brys Stephens, D.C.-based co-founder of the Web site CookThink, said he’s enthusiastic about the store because it emphasizes quality ingredients and might persuade new cooks to try out more exotic dishes.

“Sort of a demystification process takes place once you just go, pick up some cardamom and rub it on a piece of meat,” Stephens said.

The Falls Church location at 513 W. Broad St. is expected to open by summer’s end, Gibbons said.

melissa.frederick@dcexaminer.com

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