2 Best Restaurants in The Mojave Desert, California

A bustling stop for motorists traveling to and from Mammoth Lakes, this shop is crammed with delicious pastries, cookies, rolls, and other baked goods. The biggest draw, though, is the sheepherder bread, a hand-shaped and stone hearth–baked sourdough that was introduced during the gold rush by immigrant Basque sheepherders in 1907. That bread and others baked here are sliced to make the mammoth sandwiches the shop is also famous for. 

Off-roading enthusiasts and locals tend to congregate at The Joint, considered the center of the action (or maybe the only action) in town—with live music on weekends, pickleback shots, and a chalkboard menu reading “Soup of the Day: Whisky.” Dating from 1905, the adobe building originally served as a German steam bakery, and today the bar/restaurant is operated by Neil and Hollie Shotwell, the third generation to keep the family-owned saloon alive since 1955. Stop by on Saturday for guest vendors serving tacos or burgers on the grill. Picnic tables line the dusty road, or you can grab a barstool indoors where flags and currency cover the walls and ceiling.