New Winter Garden grocer adding flavor to the city

A new grocer in Winter Garden has added a little dash of flavor to the area.

Spice Culture, an Indian grocery market at 731 S. Dillard St., Suite 105, Winter Garden, offers a selection of fresh vegetables; organic items; a variety of rice, grains, lentils and flours; herbal items; teas; ready-to-eat snacks; frozen Indian dishes; spices and more. The market is co-owned by Naved Siddiqui and Fazi Sayed.

“It’s an Indian store, so we carry 90% Indian (products) that you wouldn’t find in any regular grocery store,” Siddiqui said. “All the Indian spices, Indian snacks, chapatis, roti, Indian vegetables, fresh produce and everything is India-related. Apart from that, we have quite a few things for Guyanese customers (and) Middle Eastern customers.

“We have a lot of frozen options — from Indian ice cream to … Indian desserts and sweets — and also stuff like Indian bread,” Siddiqui said. “We also have stuffed bread. It (has) different vegetables (and) masalas stuffed in it, and you can just microwave them and eat it as is.”  

In addition to pre-made frozen Indian dishes, Spice Culture is equipped with a full kitchen and will be offering hot meals for take out later this month.

“People love Indian food, and that’s why we’re here,” Siddiqui said. “(We’re) going to have all sorts of hot food — samosas, chaat, panipuri — if you are into Indian food, you would recognize (what we’ll have). … As time goes on (and) our kitchen starts, we should have fresh food every day.”

Siddiqui decided to open Spice Culture in Winter Garden because he saw a need for an Indian grocery market in the community. He said before opening Spice Culture, individuals seeking Indian products would have to drive about 45 minutes to get to the closest market that offered such items.

“There’s hardly any Indian stores (in the area), and there’s so many Indians living here,” Siddiqui said. “(There’s) so many people from that region (and from) the Middle East, and basically they all cook (with similar ingredients). Even the Guyanese customers, they cook with Indian spices. They might call it something else and name it differently, but it’s very similar and most of the time it’s the same thing. … We needed an Indian store in this area because you’d have to travel really far to buy anything in terms of Indian spices or Indian rice.” 

The market celebrated a grand reopening in late July after it had to be temporarily closed for safety reasons related to maintenance issues.

“We didn’t like it, we didn’t want to do it, but had no option,” Siddiqui said. “Safety comes first.”