I have a soft spot for new pasty locations. It’s a tough world and pasty shops aren’t an easy thing to keep open. Millie’s Market opened in 2022 and was on my radar for a couple years before I visited.
I originally tried to get one of these pasties from the Chainey House Bakery in Florence (that is now a different bakery), but it wasn’t meant to be and was informed by an employee that the pasty chef would be opening a new shop in Iron Mountain. That eventually became Millie’s Market, which is a couple blocks off US-2.
In order to stay in business, Millie’s is a “from scratch kitchen” that also sells sandwiches and caters for events. While closed on Sunday and Mondays, they stay open until 6:30 p.m. local time from Tuesday to Friday, which is perfect for me. I’m a big fan of any pasty spot that stays open later because it’s not the easiest thing for a traveling pasty connoisseur to get to a shop at a specific time, especially following The Pasty Daughter’s birth in 2023.
And so, I arrived late, the day after Christmas and Millie’s was still open. I ate the one I ordered hot about 90 minutes later, so I reviewed a frozen one to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. As usual, I defrosted and heated it at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. 
Off the bat, these pasties looked great. They had the perfect cooked-just-right hue with a fully formed handle that may be the best part. I could probably eat the crust by itself and that seems to be a common refrain when eating pasties from a bakery.
Unfortunately, I think the crust was better than the insides. There were probably a few too many potatoes in both of mine, dragging down the overall rating. It seemed like the meat was seasoned but nothing else was, which meant unseasoned potatoes were the dominant flavor on the inside. A lot of bites were heavy on potatoes, and combined with the crust, that gets to be a lot for a pasty.
I’ll definitely be back because I like what Millie’s is doing and I’m always going to support a new pasty shop. Even with a point taken away for the amount of potatoes and lack of overall flavor in the insides, these were still enjoyable. Again, I’ll come back for this crust no matter what’s inside.
Taste: 3 (out of 5)
Crust: 4.5 (out of 5)
Pasty Presentation: 3 (out of 5)
The Shop: 3 (out of 3)
Would I come back for Pasties?: 2 (out of 2)
Total Pasty Rating: 15.5 (of 20 points)
(Reviewed Winter 2024)
