A paper bag with a grease spot on the bottom is usually a good sign. That is what we kept carrying out of small strip-mall bakeries across Nevada, places we almost drove past on the way to somewhere else.
Each one had a pie case, a cookie counter, and prices that let a whole family share dessert without wincing. Here are nine spots that turned a quick snack stop into a reason to come back.
1. Mix Bakeshop
Jumbleberry pie is the slice to start with here, a mix of berries tucked under a golden crust that tastes like summer even in a Reno snowstorm. The shop sits inside the Village Shopping Center on California Avenue, so parking in the free lot takes about thirty seconds.
Cookies get as much attention as the pies. Cinnamon cookies, gluten-free cookies that hold their own against the regular kind, and beautifully decorated sugar cookies fill the counter…