Freed’s Bakery rolling the dice on Arts District location

Freed’s Bakery is headed to the Arts District. The local institution, which has been serving Las Vegas since 1959 and has a starring role in the Food Network series “Vegas Cakes,” will open a dessert shop near Main Street and California Avenue in late summer.

“We’re right across from Esther’s Kitchen (and) from Tacotarian,” co-owner Max Jacobson-Fried says of the 630-square-foot space at 20 E. California Ave. “There’s Yu-Or-Mu Sushi right there. Cream Me is opening around the corner.”

Jacobson-Fried says he’s excited about expanding the business into the rapidly developing neighborhood.

“It feels like going on an adventure when you’re down there. You could just start walking in a direction, and then take a side street, and all of a sudden there’s a bunch of chairs on the sidewalk, and the place is packed, and you’ve never seen it before. Or (there will be) little murals just hidden in weird corners. It’s very nook-and-cranny-ish, and we really love that.”

The new shop will be smaller than any of Freed’s existing locations, and will be exclusively grab-and-go, with no seating. It’s a model he hopes will complement neighboring businesses.

“There’s a lot of outdoor seating down there,” Jacobson-Fried notes. “We want people to come by, grab something, and then continue going on the adventure.”

While customers will be able to order a limited selection of small dessert-cakes for pickup at the new location, the bakery’s more extravagant creations will be reserved for the main location on Eastern Avenue.

The downtown team will focus primarily on providing snack-sized sweets: “Cake slices, French pastries, eclairs, cream puffs, cupcakes, a full suite of cookies, some breakfast items. We’ll have some ice cream sandwiches like the ones we carry at T-Mobile Arena. It’s essentially everything you’re going to find at our other locations in terms of the retail grab-and-go items, plus some of the items you can custom order.”

When asked for a specific opening date, Jacobson-Fried hesitates before offering his best guess.

“I am hoping for August,” he offers warily. “I’m trying to be cautiously optimistic.”

In addition to its main bakery on Eastern Avenue, Freed’s has dessert shops in Summerlin and the Centennial Hills/Aliante neighborhood, and a dessert cart in T-Mobile Arena.

Contact Al Mancini at amancini@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlManciniVegas on Twitter.