Pure Pasty, Cornish Pasty Shop in Vienna

Pure Pasty, open Tuesday through Saturday until 7 pm and Sundays until 4 pm. CLOSED ON MONDAY

It isn’t often that you happen upon something new, unique, and tasty in your own backyard, but we discovered this English pasty shop when we misread a sign as “pastry.” I’m sure we aren’t the only ones who made that mistake and were glad we did. On a side street off of Church Street in Vienna, Michael Burgess and crew are making delicious Cornish pasties–in American terms, potpie-like filling baked in a flaky pie crust shaped like a large empanada or small calzone. That’s a convoluted description, but you probably get the idea–delicious but not without calories. Pasties come in a few flavors: traditional, with beef, mashed potatoes, and vegetables; chicken provencal, with a French country filling; Cornish masala, which is a chicken curry; philly steak; vegetable; and a weekly special. We tried the provencal and the masala–both really delicious, although we slightly favored the masala. For Anglophiles, the shop offers a small number of other English treats.

You can take the unbaked pasties home, as we did, to have for dinner, or eat on the premises, but there is limited seating. Each pasty is a one-serving meal.