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The Stew/When He Spies 'Pies,' He Stops

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By JEFF HOUCK

jhouck@tampatrib.com

Published: October 12, 2008

SAY YAH TO DA U.P., EH!: I was lost. Not horribly lost, but lost nonetheless. Instead of heading west toward Lutz on State Road 54, I drove my truck east toward Zephyrhills. Gotta love my GPS.

Anyway, I turned around and headed back in the correct direction for a few minutes when I saw a strip mall on the right. One of the stores had a sign in the window that read "MICHIGAN PIES."

Michigan? I don't stop. Pies? I do.

Another U-turn.

Yes, the window said Michigan Pies. The entire sign said "Famous Michigan Pasty Pies." Above that was the name of the restaurant: Ye Olde Miners Pasty Shop.

A miners pastry shop out there in the middle of nowhere. This ought to be good, I thought.

I went inside and met owner Allan Gower, who has operated the eatery with his wife, Cassie, since January. He politely and patiently schooled me on what a pasty is. (I'm such a noob when it comes to regional cuisine.)

Turns out that in the 1800s, Cornish immigrants brought their cuisine to Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Working as iron miners, the men would head to work every day with meat pies for lunch made by their wives. (They'd warm the pastries in the ventilation shafts.) Each pastry had a crusty handle on it so that they could hold and eat it without getting iron in their food.

Gower, a former manager with the Outback Steakhouse chain, sells thee varieties of the baked pasty for $4.99: Da Yooper (filled with meat, potato, onion and rutabaga); Da Troll (chicken, potato, onion, rutabaga, mushroom, asparagus); and, on Fridays, there's Da Veggie (potato, onion, rutabaga, carrots, corn, black beans, mushrooms).

The taste is not unlike the potpies I grew up eating as a kid. Lots of veggies, flaky pastry, warm, delicious and filling. The hearty gravy Gower serves with it is perfect for dipping.

Response has been strong, especially among the Upper Michigan snowbirds (known as Yoopers because they hail from the Upper Peninsula), he says. Business has been slow during the summer, but Gower expects it to pick up again when they return.

In case you get lost, the shop is at 35201 S.R. 54 and is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

RAYS YOUR GLASS: Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar has concocted a cocktail in honor of the Tampa Bay Rays. Dubbed the LTF (Last to First) Martini, the $8.95 drink is being offered at the Boy Scout Boulevard location through Oct. 31. The recipe is:

LTF MARTINI:

1 1/2 ounces Cuervo

1 ounces Blue Curacao

2 ounces Sweet & Sour

1 fresh lime slice squeezed in the shaker

Shake with ice in a martini shaker.

Serve in a martini glass with a salted rim. Garnish with a caramelized slice of star fruit.

FOOD QUOTE OF THE MONTH: "I always go to Village Inn for breakfast with my dad, Steve. I crush the French toast, scrambled eggs and bacon. I'm totally excited for that."

ESPN reporter (and former WFLA News Channel 8 intern) Erin Andrews, interviewed by Tribune reporter Brett McMurphy before she returned to Tampa to cover the University of South Florida football game against the University of Pittsburgh.

POLL BEANS: 7-Eleven stores are conducting a wildly unscientific coffee cup poll, with the names of the two presidential candidates on separate 20-ounce cups. Daily tallies are posted on www.7-election.com and include daily tallies of national and state "votes." Voting ends at midnight Election Day, Nov. 4.

As of Wednesday, the Tampa/St. Pete area 7-Election Coffee Cup Poll results were:

McCain - 44 percent

Obama - 56 percent

The Florida results were:

McCain - 45 percent

Obama - 55 percent

A side note: In 2000 and 2004, the cup poll accurately reflected the percentage of votes in the final national tally, picking Bush as the winner in both elections.

GREEN DONUTS: On Friday, Dunkin' Donuts opens the doors in St. Petersburg on its first "green" store at 7595 Fourth St. N.

What makes it green? The store was built with energy-efficient materials; coffee will be served in paper cups instead of petroleum-based foam, and dine-in guests will be served on reusable trays instead of in paper bags. The store will participate in community recycling, and there will be parking spots for hybrid cars and car poolers. Leftover baked goods will be donated to local food banks.

Dunkin' Donuts president Will Kussell and St. Pete Mayor Rick Baker are scheduled to attend. Oh, and for visual metaphors, there will be green frosted donuts.

FOOD NETWORK GRIPES, REDUX: A few weeks back, I printed a letter from Cindy Vickers from Sebring, who was upset that the Food Network appeared to be marginalizing her favorite personality, Jamie Oliver.

Olga Gonzales Luckett of Odessa wrote me to say she has a few bones to pick as well, specifically that the network is lacking in Mexican and Chinese fare.

"I don't mean the kind that Bobby Flay or Rachael Ray cooks, but the kind you find in Arizona, California and most of the Southwest (Sonora style)," she writes.

"I am a Mexican native of Tucson, Ariz., and I never heard of black beans until I moved to Tampa," she says, noting she still buys red chilies by the bag from Arizona. "We use pinto beans. If you want recipes, I have plenty."

Thanks for the offer, Olga.

If you don't like the Mexican and Asian offerings on the channel, you might want to try the new Food Network Magazine, which is at newsstands. Among the recipes featured in the November/December issue are chicken and black bean tostadas, fish tacos with chipotle tartar sauce and the Vietnamese mahi-mahi bahn mi sandwiches.

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