This is the No. 1 place to stop for a pasty (pronounced pass’-tee), whether you’ve eaten them your whole life or this is your very first one. This is the place to get them. They’re that good.

The pasty is a meat-and-potato pie (without gravy) that came to the U.P. with the Cornish underground miners. Long favored in miners’ lunch buckets, the pastry-wrapped meal of meat, potatoes, onions and sometimes carrots and rutabagas was an ideal way to take a hearty meal underground.

The underground mines are gone but pasties – perhaps the immigrants’ No. 1 gastronomic gift to the U.P. – can be found in bakeries, restaurants and pasty shops throughout the U.P. They’re even mentioned, prominently, in Lilian Jackson Braun’s The Cat Who … series of mystery novels, set in Moose County “400 miles north of everywhere.” There’s even a Cat Who … cookbook with the recipe.

Yoopers eat their pasties with ketchup, not gravy.

Randall’s are the best of the best. Hot traditional pasties – with beef, pork, potato, onion, spices, shortening – are available every day the bakery is open. Hot Cornish pasties – with the addition of carrots and rutabaga – are available on Thursdays. There are also jalapeno and vegetable pasties. And breakfast pasties with sausage, bacon, onion, egg, cheddar cheese, potato, spices and shortening. All pasties can be hot and ready with 45 minutes’ notice. They’re also available half-baked frozen.

Be sure to get cookies, too. More than just a couple. The peanut butter as well as the chocolate chip will disappear quickly. Browse the shelves for additional items – breads, fruit tortes, kolaches and more.

Randall’s Bakery has been a Wakefield staple since the 1940s. There’s always someone at a table enjoying a pasty with coffee, and always willing to share a bit of information about the area. Open 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. Closed Sunday.

 

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  Photo by Elizabeth Granger
• 
  Photo by Elizabeth Granger
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  Photo by Elizabeth Granger