When a small but popular grocery store in Bossier City closed in 2013, it left Shreveport-Bossier and the surrounding region without a local resource for Indian, South Asian and Mediterranean food products, spices and ingredients. Spice & All, a new Asian and Mediterranean grocery store located at 1047 Barksdale Hwy. in Shreveport, fills that void – a void that previously stretched from Dallas, Tx. to Jackson, Ms.
“There was a need,” Spice & All owner Mike Patel told me. “There’s a large Indian community that requires groceries and previously had to drive to Dallas, Houston or Jackson.” Patel said that, since opening, he’s welcomed customers from Alexandria, Monroe-West Monroe and eastern Texas, as well as locals, including lots of Barksdale Air Force Base personnel. While many Spice & All customers have roots in South Asia or the Middle East, the store’s customer base also includes vegetarians, world travelers and culinary enthusiasts of all backgrounds.
With more than 4,500 square feet of space filled with shelves and coolers, the Spice & All selection is bigger than any other that I’ve seen locally.
“Cooks are like kids in a candy store in here,” Patel told me.
Products range from hard-to-find raw spices and ingredients to pre-mixed sauces and ready-to-eat meals. If Patel doesn’t carry something that a customer needs, he’s happy to order it.
Local food lovers may also be interested to know that Patel has plans to launch what he calls a “chaat house” (“chaat” being pronounced to rhyme with “shot,” not “cat”), a small cafe serving a type of traditional Indian street food known as chaat. Again, Patel cites the Barksdale Air Force Base, located nearby, as a primary customer base for what he hopes to do. “Air Force personnel who’ve been to Gulf countries have eaten this kind of food, and now they can find it here, within arm’s reach.”
Spice & All is located at 1047 Shreveport-Barksdale Highway, in a location that formerly housed Kiddie Mia’s. The store is open, Tues.-Sat., 10 a.m.-8 p.m., and Sun., 10 a.m.-7 p.m. It is closed on Mondays. The phone number is (318) 861-3846.
