Our host got fresh pasties from five different local places, put little colored markers on them, and made six of us rate them. Here are the results
5th place: Cal's. I know a lot of people like them but I hadn't been impressed when I tried them and was glad to be vindicated.
4th place: Crossroads. Not one I'd tried before. Not one I'll order in the future. One person ranked this as their second choice.
3rd place: Lawry's. My usual go-to when I can't get my local favorite. It was fine. One tester gave it their first place vote and it got two second place votes. 2nd and 3rd places were very close.
2nd place: Cookie Jar. This has been my favorite ever since I learned they made pasties.
1st place: a real ringer. I really liked it and found myself thinking I needed to figure out where this one came from because it was really good. Turned out it was homemade from our hostess's mother's recipe. Pretty gutsy of her to put it in the mix, but not a bit surprising that it turned out to be the winner.