When I was a kid growing up in Pennsylvania, I loved going to the local bakeries. My friends and I would walk in the door and inhale the sweet-tinged air. Then we’d sidle up to the glass-fronted cases to stare at the goodies on display. Strewn before our wondering eyes were a dozen varieties of cookies, pastries, assorted tarts and pies, and perfectly iced cakes. Of less interest to our young eyes was the assortment of breads and rolls.

Bakery cakes were something my family splurged on only for birthdays, so I could do no more than cast longing looks at them. But cookies, purchased for a nickel each and, sometimes, three for a dime, were well within even my personal budget. The two bakeries in town each had its own specialties, no doubt based on recipes passed down in the family-run businesses over generations. From one bakery I would choose big, soft, chocolaty cookies filled with ground nuts and glossed over with satin-smooth icing. From the other, my favorite was a buttery wafer sporting a glob of creamy frosting, topped with an M&M. Decades later, I savor the memory of these treats.

When my family moved to Phoenix, it was something of a shock to discover that there was no such thing as a neighborhood bakery. The closest substitute was the “Bakery Department” at the supermarkets. Sometimes the goods looked similar to those from my hometown memories. But in the five years I lived in Arizona, I never tasted the like of my humble, hometown baked goods. Same thing for the 21 years I lived in Denver, where neighborhood bakeries were also, as far as I could tell, nonexistent. I fell into the vague belief that real bakeries were creatures found only Back East.

So imagine my surprise upon moving to Las Vegas, this notorious city of neon and vice, to find tiny shops reminiscent of those sweet bakeshops of my youth. Amazingly, Vegas sports an abundance of bakeries, with one in nearly every strip mall — at least in the older parts of town. Just like the sweetshops of my memory, the bakeries here are small storefronts, filled with the glass-fronted cases offering cookies, cakes, pies and breads. And the best part? The treats are every bit as good as the ones of my childhood.

The granddaddy of bakeries in Vegas has to be Freed’s. Milton and Esther Fried first started, in 1959, with a snack bar in the long-gone Panorama Market. Nearly 50 years later, Freed’s Bakery has truly become a Vegas institution. It changed locations a few times until 1980, when it settled on a good-sized shop at Tropicana and Eastern. Just last year, a second location opened in Silverado Ranch. It doesn’t matter what time of day you go or to which store: In every case, you’ll find a line of customers with mouths watering at the displays. At the Trop store, I counted more than two dozen cookies, plus Danish and other pastries, and, of course, the cakes.

Freed’s prides itself on its wedding cakes, and justly so. They do a fine job with birthday cake as well, customizing the decoration to fit the celebrant. But you don’t have to wait for a wedding, or even a birthday, to experience the sublime pleasure of a Freed’s cake. Their revolving refrigerated case offers an assortment of rich delights for those who suddenly discover a need for a cake fix. White and chocolate cake with fillings like Bavarian cream, raspberry puree or bananas make frequent appearances. But my personal favorite is the rich chocolate cake filled with strawberries and coated with a creamy white frosting. These cakes are so tall, they don’t even fit in the cake boxes. The clerk has to prop up the box lid with tape.

As good as that cake is, sometimes I just want some cookies. Fortunately, just a little east of Freed’s on Tropicana is another family-run bakery with a long tradition in Vegas: Albina’s Italian American Bakery. Hidden in a dying strip mall, Albina’s has a huge variety of cookies with various fillings and coatings. It also has what is likely the best selection of Italian pastries in town.

Seriously, cannoli is just the beginning, here. They also offer pignoli, bocconoto and one or two others I have no hope of spelling correctly. I confess, Italian pastry has no part in my childhood memories, as my hometown bakeries were run by Germans and Slavs. But éclairs are a staple for all bakeries, and Albina’s does them even better than what I remember from home.

Recently, a new bakery opened in the Valley, and it has something that these two better-known Vegas bakeries just can’t offer: a location within walking distance of my house. La Puma Bakery, on Water Street in Henderson, is a small bakery that doubles as a deli. While La Puma is a newcomer to the West, its owner, Joe La Puma, is a fifth-generation baker whose ancestors operated bakeries in Brooklyn and Cleveland. La Puma’s baked goods are made using recipes brought over from Sicily more than a hundred years ago. In addition to a selection of breads and rolls, this Italian bakery also offers a selection of traditional pastries, plus incredibly rich, buttery and nut-filled cookies. They even have the soft, chocolate-nutty cookies of my youth. La Puma also offers fresh-baked pizza daily.

Bakeries probably aren’t the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of Vegas. But for me, the rich selection of bakeries in town is high on the list of things that make me glad I live here.