Irontown Pasties

On the exterior wall at the back of Irontown Pasties is a very old sign, partially obscured now by a new window. Its only completely legible letters are the last three: I-E-S. You don’t have to be a professional semiologist to know that the first four letters are P-A-S-T. This sign out of the past is a reminder that the building that now houses Irontown Pasties has purveyed the Upper Peninsula’s favorite meat pies for a long time, its most recent prior incarnation being Grandma T’s Pasty Shop. The current owners, John and Lori Cizek, bought Grandma T’s, along with the recipes; then, as Mr. Cizek jokes, they “changed everything.”

You still can get a classic pasty here, and it is a dandy: beefy comfort food in a tender crust – satisfying plain, but exciting when decorated with one of the three degrees of hot jalapeno ketchup Irontown offers. Other available pasty choices include vegan with no lard or suet, vegetarian with cheese, spicy beef, and chicken pot pie pasties. And there is a whole line of pasties made with gluten-free crust. Much business is take-out, but when they are served on premises, the pasties come with a fork. They would be easy to eat with no utensils at all, they are that buff.

For dessert, you can have either Cedar Crest ice cream (a northern Midwest brand) or fruit turnovers that look a lot like pasties but are filled with blueberry, raspberry, apple or cherry.

As is true of most U.P. pasty shops, Irontown offers its pasties fully baked, half-baked, and frozen.