While researching another article for dcfüd, I came across a great find – a small bakery off of Maple Ave. in Vienna with a unique product in the display case. Cornish pasties. (That’s pronounced “pass-tees,” by the way, according to the website! I made that mistake when I first walked in.)
A Cornish pasty is a small, handheld savory pastry stuffed with meat and vegetables – it reminds me of an oversized, much better looking Hot Pocket. When I was little, my family took a trip to the UK, and I distinctly recall picking up pasties for lunch from a bakery in North London with my parents. I remembered them fondly, but as an adult and a home cook, I wondered if they would still hold up. Believe me, this little shop took me by surprise.
I stopped by one afternoon, managing to walk in just at closing time, and snagged one of their “Traditional” pasties, filled with beef, potato, onion, and carrot. The cashier warned me that their Traditional pasty uses a peppery recipe, but I was not disappointed when I tried it at home – the filling had some nice heat, but even though I’m not a huge fan of pepper in my own cooking, it wasn’t overwhelming at all. The shop uses both black and white pepper in their pasties to great effect. And the crust! I don’t know their secret, but the flaky, buttery crust was superb.
I was hooked, and I had to know more. I went back a couple of days later to speak to the owner a bit more. Michael Burgess, a native of Nantwich, a small English town near Manchester, had kindly told me a bit about Cornish pasties on my first visit, explaining that they became popular among workers in Cornwall’s tin mines. When those mines tapped out in the 19th century, Cornish miners fanned out around the world, and pasties made their way across the pond to areas of the US where mining was king – including, in particular, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. His menu proudly proclaims that “It’s All In the Crust,” and I wanted to see if the other recipes were just as good.
Mr. Burgess explained to me that he came to the food industry with no prior experience; he’d been working for HSBC in the UK as an IT manager and wasn’t terribly satisfied with the job. When the global recession hit in 2008, he said, he took the opportunity to move to the U.S. with his American wife and fulfill a longtime dream he’d kicked around with friends on snowboarding trips: a pasty bakery. After months spent in Cornwall tasting pasties and learning about the trade, as well as plenty of scouting in Northern Virginia and securing the proper permits, the shop opened in October of 2010.
The place appears to be a hit with the locals, as even the slow pre-dinner hour saw several passersby stop in for a fix. Mr. Burgess told me he gets a decent amount of business from British expats and others who remember pasties fondly, and demand is sufficient for him to maintain a staff of about 10 employees between full- and part-timers. He also emphasized that his kitchen is a collaborative operation rather than a regimented culinary brigade, particularly when they’re devising new recipes, as employees work together to develop their latest creations before they hit the display case. The open kitchen in the shop allows all comers to watch the staff at work, a particularly nice touch with a culinary curiosity like a pasty. The bakers also work hard to obtain high-quality ingredients for their products: while organic beef is apparently hard to come by, they make do with grass-fed and use as many organic vegetables and other ingredients as possible.
After enjoying two pasties (and ruining my dinner twice, to boot…) I found that the product there definitely reflects the effort they put into sourcing their ingredients. The vegetables in the Traditional pasty were actually still slightly crisp when I bit into it, meaning they had obviously not been dumped into the filling from a can. The crust is soft and flavorful, no matter what the filling may be. Their Reuben pasty, one of the weekly specials, is a flawless take on my favorite kind of sandwich – not too cheesy and filled with good corned beef – and I’ve got a “Cornish Masala” pasty ready for tomorrow’s lunch. They’ve also got Chicken Provencal, “Slowdown Veggie,” and Moroccan Lamb varieties on the regular menu, and I’m going to have to head back for the lamb at some point. While Mr. Burgess acknowledged that he offers a very different product than Americans might be used to, he noted that the Northern Virginia area has a “very open-minded, well-educated, experienced public,” and I suspect that quite a few customers walk out of the shop as amazed as I was.
This little shop completely surprised me with its traditional Cornish pasties, and I can’t recommend them highly enough. If you’re a British expat and craving a taste of home, or simply a food enthusiast looking for an absolutely unique lunch (I can’t say I’ve ever come across another pasty shop in this area!) then go west, young urbanite, and check this place out. I sincerely doubt that you’ll be disappointed
Enjoy!
The Pure Pasty Co. operates out of a storefront between Church Street and Maple Avenue in Vienna, about half a block west of Center Street in the middle of the town. Directions, the entire menu, and other information may be found on their website at http://www.purepasty.com/.
-HML (H. Michael)
