Lehto’s Pasties

Connected to lower Michigan by the Mackinac Bridge, the longest suspension bridge western hemisphere (yep, longer than the Golden Gate), Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is a world of its own—rustic, remote, and defiantly stuck in time, by choice. It is also home to a food tradition that is as tied to regional culture as jambalaya is to New Orleans or the lobster roll is to Maine. 

For Yoopers, as those above the bridge are known, it’s all about the pasty. Originally filled with beef, potato, and rutabaga, pasties hail from Cornwall, England; but were adopted by miners during the U.P.’s iron and copper mining booms in such staunch numbers that you seemingly cannot drive more than a few miles on this stretch of Michigan that touches Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, and Lake Superior without seeing another sign for them. Lehto’s, located just ten minutes west of the Michty Mac, as the bridge is called, has been selling the original hand-held miners lunch to leery first-timers and devoted locals since 1947. 

“Our pasty is delicious but when you combine it with entering an 80-year-old building, the same smells coming from the kitchen, and the same menu your great grandfather had; it is more akin to eating a memory rather than just another pasty,” says third-generation owner Max Walker. The menu at his original location is concise, offering the original family recipe for a beef pasty, the option of gravy (admittedly sold only for tourists from below the bridge), and a drink.