By pure chance, I stumbled upon, and then wrote about, The Pure Pasty Co. on October 8th, 2010 (coincidentally, or perhaps not, this Washington Post piece came out on October 20th., with no citations whatsoever – nothing new there).
While I really liked what I had that evening, last Friday night after dinner at Maple Ave Restaurant, we decided to swing by to see if they were still open – as it turns out, it was 7:40 PM, and they close at 7. Nevertheless, as we drove by, the owner literally came out the door and flagged us down. “Even though the sign says we’re closed,” he said, enthusiastically, “we still have some things available!”
So we went in, and got three Traditional Style ($5.99) pasties to go – in a freshly covered aluminum tray and still warm (!). Michael, the owner, put two in one bag, and got out a second bag for the third one.
“Go ahead and put all three in the same bag,” I said.
“No, the crust is too delicate, and they can get a bit ‘smashed,'” I think he said.
“Well, then go ahead and add a fourth,” I replied.
On the way out, we couldn’t resist splitting one on the way home, and let me tell you, both of us agreed that this was one of the best tasting things either of us had in a long time – it was perfection. It took all our resources not to eat a second one in the car, despite just having had dinner.
“Is this, like, the greatest thing you’ve ever eaten?” I asked.
“Oh yeah,” he replied.
I cannot overemphasize just how good these were. The Traditional pasty here is stuffed with naturally raised, grass-fed beef, Russet potato, Vidalia onion, butternut squash, and traditional seasoning, and is absolutely – or at least on this night – as good as any hand-held “thing” resembling a sandwich, empanada, samosa, what-have-you that you could ever possibly imagine. These things are awesome, and despite their large size, I could eat twenty of them!