The pasty has been a staple of the Upper Peninsula’s culture for a great many years, so much so that it has also been made one of the pillars of tourism here. It has been made that way by many pasty-focused bakeries that dot the UP, Houghton being the home to one of the most prominent of these shops, Roy’s Bakery. The Roy’s Bakery we know today is run by Houghton- Hancock native and namesake of the establishment Roy Nahri, although, like the pasties that are served, there is a deeper history. Roy’s start with pasties originated from working alongside his father, Sheldon, in the Crown bakery from when he could first start working until his graduation from Houghton High School in 1979.
While Roy did leave the UP for some time to study and work after 1982, he would eventually come back to Houghton in 2001 with his father to start their own pasty shop called Sheldon’s Bakery in the Sharon Center. The bakery started off small as they sold Sheldon’s original pasties, yet it didn’t become the bakery now known as Roy’s Bakery until Roy was given the reins by his retiring father in 2007. Over the next six years, Roy would grow the business to the point that his current facilities were no longer adequate and he had new facilities erected where his building stands today. Now Roy personally helps make and sell hundreds of pasties a day to a hungry populace. The pasties he makes aren’t just the traditional ones from his father’s original recipe, but a wide variety of pasties. This selection includes mouthwatering variants such as the crowd favorite chicken-broccoli, breakfast, vegetarian, turkey cranberry, bacon cheeseburger, Pasty-with-a-Kick (no rutabaga, but with peppers and hot sauce) as well as pizza pasties.
It’s easy to see how beloved and varied the pasty has become here, although it has its deep roots all the way to another mining-based peninsula. Those deep roots go all the way down to the old tin mines of Cornwall, whose miners would need a filling meal for lunch that was not only portable but easy to keep heated. The pasty was the perfect solution, as the beef, onion, potato and rutabaga filling made for a hearty yet tasty meal. Pasties could not only be kept warm over time but were also easy to heat up, as many miners could use their shovels over their headlamps to reheat their pasties. The signature crust edge of the pasty also made it easier to eat as it required no utensils, but it was also safe, as parts of the crust that were held weren’t eaten to avoid arsenic and tin poisoning.
The pasty wouldn’t stay in Cornwall when the tin mines dried up in the 1800s, as miners brought their favorite lunch with them when they sought work in the copper mines of the Upper Peninsula. When the Cornish first introduced the pasty to the Scandinavian workers, they quickly became enamored by the simple but effective dish. Soon, the Scandinavian population had developed their own versions of the pasty, which gave the pasty staying power needed to survive when the copper mines closed. It has not only stayed popular over the years, but has become a mainstay of the local culture for centuries till now and centuries to come.
