Joe’s Pasty Shop is one of those places that owns up to its name. When you think pasty shop, this is exactly what image comes to your mind.

A lot of that is probably due to Ironwood, since everything in town seems a bit older and out of touch. And that’s great and good enough for Joe’s.

The sign even reads, “The landmark for pasties. The pasty that made pasties famous. Since 1946.”

That’s hard to believe since no one really goes to Ironwood, but they can have their moment in the sun.

The shop is located downtown – or on the street I think is downtown – and the prices are best in the business at just over five bucks per pasty. Although, the prices on their very old website are $2.50.

I was going to get ‘Traditional’ because that’s what The Pasty Guy does, but getting rutabaga was a must even if it was 50 cents more, so I opted for the ‘Cornish’ one.

The ‘Finnish’ version had carrots in it, which isn’t listed on the website.

But to my knowledge, I’m fairly certain the Traditional pasty contains rutabaga. Maybe that’s just an easier way of marketing things.

As you can see from the picture, the crust was a bit soft. Probably a little too soft, and somewhat doughy in parts on the inside.

I took it for a little road trip to the Porcupine Mountains, but this is what it looked like out of the shop. Why would The Pasty Guy lie?

While that was the case, it did have some flakiness to it, so it wasn’t a complete bust. If it wasn’t so soft, it could have been spot on. And if they crumped their crust the right way, that may have helped as well.

I was expecting rutabaga because I got the Cornish version, but woah.

So many rutabagas. This was easily the most rutabagas I’ve seen in a pasty, and if I’m not mistaken the ratio was probably 50/50 of rutabagas and potatoes. You don’t see that every day. Or ever.

An issue was that the meat was focused mostly in the middle with little on the two ends. I think that was a result of the crust’s design, allowing the food to move around in the middle. Personally, I blame the mass amount of rutabaga.

Again, the soft crust kind of hurt everything. While eating it like a normal pasty, it was kind of flattened, as shown in the picture.

Other than the crust, it was good. I mean, if this pasty made pasties famous, it had to be good, right?

If not for the crust, this may be the near the top of the list. But hey, the crust is the hardest part to get right.

Taste: 4.5 (out of 5)
Crust: 3 (out of 5)
Pasty Presentation: 3.5 (out of 5)
The Shop: 3 (out of 3)
Would I come back for Pasties?: 2 (out of 2)

Total Pasty Rating: 16 (of 20 points)

(Reviewed Fall 2016)