As with any shop that doesn’t have pasty in the title, my expectations for Peppy’s Pizza — a joint that specializes in pretty much everything — were limited. On their website, Peppy’s claims to have “the largest carry out menu in the area.” That may be true, but do they have the best food on that menu?
After finding reviews online that said Peppy’s had great pasties and their “crust is perfect,” I had to try them.
But of course, the people that claim perfection on the crust are surely relatives to the shop or have something to gain from that comment.
On the menu, Peppy’s says that the pasty is one of their signature items and they’ve been making them for over 41 years. Look a little further on the menu and a few other items are considered signature, as well.
At the least, I’m not doubting how long they’ve been perfecting the recipe, as the Misovski couple from Macedonia started things with a bakery in Hazel Park and that eventually turned into Peppy’s, which opened in 1996.
The shop is a simple brick building right off Livernois in Troy, Michigan. The many options are evident as soon as I stepped inside. They have a number of cold pasties in the window, but I opted for the ready-to-eat beef pasty.
The crust, unfortunately, was the worst part of the pasty for me. One could assume that just by looking at the picture above. Yes, the pasty is big, but there is a dough overload with large areas of crust and no filling on the edges. To go along with that, the first dive into the pasty presented dryness, which led to too much flakiness.
And yet, Peppy’s still salvaged a few points by what was inside. The meat was everywhere and might have even been a 1:1 ratio with the potato, which you don’t see too often. The bummer for me was that the lone hot beef option did not contain rutabaga, but the potato, carrot and onion did their jobs nonetheless.
In addition, a $4.23 pasty is hard to beat, especially with how big they are.
Taste: 2.5 (out of 5)
Crust: 2 (out of 5)
Pasty Presentation: 3.5 (out of 5)
The Shop: 3 (out of 3)
Would I come back for Pasties?: 1 (out of 2) Price is hard to beat
Total Pasty Ranking: 12 (of 20 points)
(Reviewed Spring 2016)