ASU students who are hungry but too busy to hit up tasty food joints during finals have the option of delivery from two local restaurants that offer flavors different from the ordinary chain pizzeria.
Cornish Pasty Co. on Hardy and University drives offers a spin on the classic delivery food. Mellow Mushroom on Mill Avenue and Seventh Street opened its delivery service Thursday.
For a new take on the classic eight slices, Mellow Mushroom opened a restaurant in the Mill Avenue Shopping District in March and offers pizzas like the Philosopher’s Pie (similar to a Greek pizza with steak) and the Kosmic Karma (sun-dried tomatoes and pesto).
“It’s a unique pizza, a unique taste, one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had,” assistant general manager Shawn Auche said.
Auche, who also chooses alcohol for the Mellow Mushroom company, said the pizza is prepared with spring water and molasses and that all the pizza dough is vegan.
While delivery currently stops at 10 p.m. in Tempe, Auche said the restaurant plans to extend those hours soon and offer discounts to students by mid-summer or fall.
The physical restaurant closes at 2 a.m. Sunday through Wednesday, and at 3 a.m. Thursday through Saturday.
Mellow Mushroom charges a $2 delivery fee, with prices ranging from $9 for a small cheese pizza to $26 for a large Philosopher’s Pie.
Auche said delivery service will pick up when the word gets out.
Cornish Pasty Co. also has offered a delivery service for about five years and has been around since 2004.
A Cornish pasty is a small pie filled with ingredients, similar to hot pockets, but made from scratch every day at the restaurant.
The restaurant delivers from 11 a.m. to around 11:45 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and noon to around 9:45 p.m. on Sunday within a five-mile radius.
“The cold pizza gets old. You try to get a better slice of life sometimes with a better flavor such as the variety that the Cornish pasty provides,” said Brandon Volkenant, general manager of Cornish Pasty Co. and 2006 ASU social psychology alumnus.
Pasties take about an hour to prepare from scratch at the restaurant, Volkenant said, so cooks begin to prepare them before they are ordered.
Cornish Pasty Co. offers over 40 different kinds of pasties to students, from vegan specialties to classic chicken potpies. Prices range from about $5 to $9.50 for various pasties.
They deliver frequently on campus because pasties make a large, inexpensive and re-heatable meal, Volkenant said.
“This is one of the highest quality independent mom and pops in the area,” said Nico Holthaus, a film studies graduate student and teacher who has eaten at Cornish Pasty Co. since its opening.
The Cornish pasty originated in Cornwall, England, with tin miners. Their wives would bake the leftovers from dinner in a piecrust for their husbands to eat at work, Volkenant said.
Not another homemade authentic Cornish pasty is available for 600 miles, he said.
Portable and small enough to hold in one’s hand, Volkenant said pasties are perfect both for miners eating several hundred feet underground in near darkness and for students rushing to class who don’t have time to sit down and eat.
When students do sit down to study, Volkenant said they are welcome to order a pasty, listen to music and study in the restaurant.
“[Students] won’t be bothered and forced to continue buying things,” he said.
Cornish Pasty Co. was born when owner Dean Thomas, who grew up eating pasties in Cornwall, England, brought the tradition to Arizona.
Volkenant said Thomas is working on expanding space in the 900-square-foot Tempe restaurant and is later opening a restaurant in Old Town Scottsdale.
He also opened a pasty shop in Mesa a year and a half ago.
Reach the reporter at hhuskins@asu.edu
