There was a time when getting a good pasty meant a road trip to the Upper Peninsula. Now you have an option a little closer than a four hour drive to cross the Mackinac Bridge. How about a 30 minute drive to Saranac instead!?

This could be the area's best kept secret! Tony Baumgartner has been making these things for about a dozen years now. He makes the pasties at Viki’s Bridge Street Pasty Shop located, appropriately, on Bridge Street in Saranac. His shop also makes sub sandwiches that are sold at gas stations and convenience stores through west Michigan.

But back to the pasties! Tony was born and raised in the U.P., so his roots go back to the land of the pasty. His pasties are sold not only fresh and ready to eat, but frozen pasties are also available for you to cook at home. Stock up that freezer!

Fox 17 recently did a story on Tony and Vicki's Bridge Street Pasty Shop.

It doesn't sound like an easy process to make one of these things. They make the dough the day before to give it a chance to get cold. Then they weigh up 96-gram balls of dough. The next day they run them through a two-pass sheeter to flatten it much like a pie crust. Then comes the preparation of the ingredients that go on the inside...the beef, potatoes, and rutabagas. They have to peel about 50 pounds of potatoes every morning along with about 10 pounds of rutabagas. Once they are peeled they have to be chopped up in to cubes...all by hand. Then the mix is put onto the dough, rolled over and then braided shut and thrown in the oven.

It sounds like a lot of work. Instead, do what I'm going to do...take a road trip to Saranac! I'll see you there!

Viki's Bridge Street Pasty Shop is located at 77 N. Bridge St. in Saranac. You can find more information on their Facebook page.

 

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