I’ve created two pasty trails, but there always seems to be a different shop that pops up whenever I search for more. While I already had a pasty route planned after hiking the Porcupine Mountains, it was inevitable that I had to stop at The Little Cookie Store when it appeared in my Google Maps search of Ontonagon.

After breakfast at nearby Syl’s Cafe, I checked to see if the store was open. I didn’t know what to expect and eventually came to the church in which The Little Cookie Store is located. Of note, it’s not an active church and the store is located in the basement, which you can find on the Spar Street side.

While cookie is in the name, it’s more of a bakery with pasties, though I believe cookies and pasties are the best sellers. I believe their only hours are Saturday and Monday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (ET). Luckily, they were open Labor Day so I could grab a frozen pasty.

These pasties are big. I took all the pasties in my freezer out and compared them, and this one was easily the biggest. After cooking at 375 degrees for about 50 minutes, it came out crisp.

Unfortunately, because it was so big and the crust wasn’t strong enough, I couldn’t eat it with my hands. The crust was likely made of shortening and the handle was a bit chewy. The flavor wasn’t bad, but I probably had to take four or five bites of the handle before getting to the inside.

The biggest downer was that it may have had the worst meat-to-veggie ratio I’ve experienced. It took me a while to find meat and when I found some, it took a while to find more. There was almost no meat in the pasty. If I had to guess, it was about a five-percent ratio to veggies. That’s kind of unacceptable for a pasty and maybe I got a bad one, but I have no reason to revisit and review another one given how this went.

The positive was that the flavor was actually pretty good. There may have been loads of potatoes with onions and rutabaga, but I kept eating it because it tasted decent. If you don’t like potatoes, this probably isn’t a pasty for you.

I don’t like giving bad ratings to small pasty shops, but as one can see in the pictures, there was close to no meat in my pasty. I guess since it didn’t pass the ratio requirement, it technically wasn’t a pasty. 

Taste: 3 (out of 5)
Crust: 3 (out of 5)
Pasty Presentation: 2 (out of 5)
The Shop: 1.5 (out of 3)
Would I come back for Pasties?: 0 (out of 2) 

Total Pasty Rating: 9.5 (of 20 points)

Reviewed Fall 2019