On the Passing of Tom Spicer

Tom “Spiceman” Spicer, a force in the North Texas culinary scene for more than 30 years, died in his East Dallas home on March 2 while washing berries at his kitchen sink. He was 58 years old. Even if you didn’t know Spicer, you most likely have eaten a vegetable he procured for a Dallas restaurant. In addition to running FM 1410, a small, funky retail produce shop with a garden behind it, he supplied a long list of chefs with quality fruits and vegetables, and menus all over town served “Spicer’s greens.” Spicer threw enchanting dinner parties in his tiny space and filled the evenings with storytelling, food discussions, gumbo, and music. A lifelong musician, he played what he called a kalimbass, an instrument he created by mounting a kalimba thumb piano on an acoustic bass guitar. (He applied to trademark his invention in 1999.) When he wasn’t tending to his crops, he was talking to customers who stopped in to buy what he called “a dime bag of shrooms.” He was an accomplished chef who began foraging for food and preaching farm-to-table eating long before it was fashionable. He will be missed in kitchens and at tables all over the city for a long time to come.