Back in 2024, my coworkers were jealous of my many trips to da U.P., especially my breakfasts at Suomi and the frozen pasties I'd bring home. As a scheme to get me to feed them lunch (ha!), they proposed that I procure pasties from all over & do a comparison of frozen pasties. Fast forward a few weeks, and I procured the required pasties.
Through an arduous effort (ha!) and for the advancement of science (ha!), four of my Yooper-wanna-be coworkers (mostly Michigan Tech alum) and I partook the pasty bake-off of six frozen U.P. pasties. (All from the western U.P.) I guess it should come as no surprise that Suomi Bakery won the contest.
To be fair to all the bakeries, one of our taste testers did admonish the rest of us, saying that we were being too picky and they're all good (which is true)!
On your next trip through the U.P., stop by anywhere and buy a fresh or frozen pasty. (Frozen pasties in a cooler will make it home still frozen... heck, in the winter, I just put them in a bag in the trunk, and they made it home frozen solid.) You can't go wrong, unless you use gravy.
Our numerical ratings are below, followed by a map of where to get them, and pictures of each.
The selected pasties are not the only ones you can find! They were merely the ones I had an opportunity to collect for the bakeoff. Other delicious frozen pasties exist (Jen's Kitchen in Calumet, Mohawk Superette, and Amy J's Pasties in Hancock). I've had them all, and liked all of them (except for Joe's...).
Locals will argue about Suomi or Mohawk Superette pasties being the best. I prefer Rigoni's. :)