1408 first street (highway 60)
magdalena, new mexico 87825
CALL OR TEXT US 575.418.7537
Photo by Kate Russell
HOURS OF OPERATION
Wednesday: 11am- 7pm
Thursday: 11am- 7pm
Friday: 11am- 7pm
Saturday: 11am- 7pm
Sunday: 11am- 5pm
Monday: closed
Tuesday: closed
CLOSED DATES 2024:
March 31: Easter Sunday
April 10 - 16: Spring Cleaning & Maintenance
July 3 - 4: Independence Day & Gola Fest
November 28: Thanksgiving
December 24 - January 7: Holiday Break
DISCLAIMER + IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
Please call ahead if you are traveling far to eat here to make sure we can accommodate your group and to ensure we have menu items available, and to ensure everything is running smoothly. We are sometimes surprised with power outages, extreme winds, risky road conditions, pipe bursts, all sorts of fun stuff, etc. that cause technical difficulties.
Reservations during Friday - Sunday for 4 or more are highly recommended and required for 6 or more. We are a small establishment and have seating for 32 indoors, 10 outdoors. We never like to turn people away when they are with a big group or have them wait. People think because we are in the middle of nowhere we won't be busy, but that is rarely the case.
If there is a big event or festival in the village we do not do reservations and switch to COUNTER SERVICE. This is to ensure a smoother faster service and higher turn over. That way we can serve everyone. No reservations on following event dates; VLA Open House for fall or spring, or during ART Magdalena, Frontier Festival.
There are many factors that affect our hours of operation having a restaurant in the middle of nowhere. We are in every form a mom n' pop shop, owned and operated by a husband and wife team. We are a small team and are trying our best! We take great pride in our product, quality, and service. Thanks for understanding and we look forward to serving you!
If you reserve the entire restaurant for your group we will add a 10-20% auto gratuity to your tab and will only split between maximum of 10 tables / tickets. We rely on smooth service and a speedy turnover and splitting between over 10 people is time consuming.
We recently received our liquor license and will be serving beer, wine, and cider this coming fall. Note that customers will no longer be able to carry firearms into the establishment. There will also be house policies on drink limits so we can legally stay within the 40% drink 60% food ratio.
March 2024: We are in the process of upgrading our liquor license to a Restaurant A+ license where we can carry locally made distilled spirits from New Mexico.
Write us a Google Review!
https://g.page/r/CSFUbdvHZ_DDEB0/review
contact information
Phone: 575.418.7537
Address: 1408 First Street (Highway 60 West) . Magdalena, NM 87825
Email: info@tumbleweedsnm.com
Follow: @tumbleweedsnm on Facebook & Instagram
Please call or text number above during hours of operation. If we do not pick up the first time, send us a text and we will get back to you as soon as we can. For parties of 4 or more please contact us to make sure we can accommodate your group.
We are open for limited indoor dining, outdoor dining, and take out. We also offer the following services; catering for events (weddings, retreats, fundraisers), private chef services for retreats and outfitters, boxed meals, you name it. If you have a dietary restriction, let us know and we will do our best to meet your needs.
ABOUT
Tumbleweeds Diner is located on the west end of town in Magdalena, New Mexico, off historic Highway 60. The building was originally the Big Bear Cafe, but remained unoccupied for over a decade. In January 2020 husband and wife; Michal Gola and Osiris Navarro took a road trip to southwest and passed by the abandoned building on their way back home to the Pacific Northwest. In February 2020 covid19 turned everyones lives upside down and Osiris and Michal had to close their thriving catering and event planning business back home due to a years worth of event cancellations. In April 2020, the couple remembered the abandoned cafe and visualized an alternate future, and did their due diligence on acquiring the building. By July 2020 the Golas moved to Magdalena, NM and got straight to work in revamping the abandoned diner. Through the help and support of family, friends, and neighbors, Tumbleweeds Diner was able to open by March 2021.
The diner offers a true southwest high country experience with sweeping views of the mountains and desert, crisp blue skies, and fiery sunsets. The decor of the diner honors the culture and history of Magdalena featuring odds and ends from locals such as taxidermy heads from hunters, dusty saddles and worn out cowboy hats from ranchers, paintings and dreamcatchers from Navajo artisans of the Alamo reservation, ristras from chile farmers, etc. During spring and summer months the diner opens up their acreage to vendors for flea markets, and musicians for an open circle jam session.
Tumbleweeds Diner is a casual eatery featuring homemade food from; green chile cheeseburgers, spicy buttermilk fried chicken, smothered rice bowls with chile, hearty salads, soups, and more. Tumbleweeds grinds their own burger patties fresh every morning, makes all their own sauces, dressings and pickles from scratch. When available, they have specials featuring local ingredients from neighboring ranches and farms such as The Good Steward Beef and Dunhill Ranch. They even procure recipes from the elders of the village to fully embody the roots of the land. You can expect a nice selection of natural and organic wines from PM Wines Distributors out of Santa Fe and local brews from Santa Fe Brewing, Bosque, and Sandia Cider.
Read story by the DC Chieftan here to learn more about the background of Tumbleweeds
Photo by Kate Russell
LUNCH & DINNER MENU
For weekly specials please visit our Facebook page for updates.
DISCOVER MAGDALENA
Magdalena, New Mexico is a small but mighty village off the historic Highway 60. "The Lady on the Mountain" is a rock formation on Magdalena Peak overlooking Magdalena. Spanish soldiers saw the profile of a woman on the west face of the peak. A priest with them was reminded of a similar peak in Spain called "La Sierra de Maria Magdalena", so he called the New Mexico one "La Sierra de Magdalena". The pass to the south of the peak became known as Magdalena Gap, and when a town grew up it received the same name.
Magdalena continues to be a ranching and hunting community while strengthening its art, astronomy and geology venues. The reopening of the Magdalena Hall Hotel (circa 1917) and the renovation of other historical buildings allow visitors to connect to the past. The Magdalena Public Library and Boxcar Museum are housed in the old railroad depot. Several rock and mineral shops have been around since the mining boom days.
The ghost town of Kelly and two festivals, the "Open Studio and Gallery Tour" and the "Old Timers Reunion and Rodeo", bring tourists to the area. The "Enchanted Skies Star Party" in early fall brings astronomers and astro-photographers together under its very dark skies.
The Very Large Array lies 24 miles due west of the community. The Magdalena Ridge Observatory lies 25 miles southeast at an elevation of 10,600 feet. Magdalena is located 26 miles west of Socorro.
For more information visit the following links:
Magdalena Chamber of Commerce website
New Mexico True featuring Magdalena
Travel Guide New Mexico You Tube
SUPPORT LOCAL
Galleries, Shopping, Retail, Activities
Ol School' House Gallery & BnB
Main Street . Magdalena, NM 87825
La Posada Art Gallery
local woven pieces, paintings, photography
1006 West 1st Street (Highway 60) . Magdalena, NM 87825
www.laposadademariamagdalena.com/art-gallery
The Marketplace
antiques, Pendleton, Navajo made goods
105 North Main Street, Magdalena, NM 87825
Kind of Small Array
art gallery and intimate event space
106 North Main Street . Magdalena, NM 87825
www.facebook.com/kindofasmallarray
Warehouse 110
art gallery and event space
110 N Main St, Magdalena, NM 87825
Food, Drinks, Gas, Grocery
Golden Spur Saloon
bar, packaged liquor, cigarettes, pizza, burgers, patio
505 First Avenue . Magdalena, NM 87825
Evett's Cafe
coffee, milkshakes, sandwiches, gallery
501 1st St, Magdalena, NM 87825
www.facebook.com/maghighdesert
Steer Stop Gas & Grocery
produce, homemade burritos
705 East 1st Street . Magdalena, NM 87825
www.facebook.com/SteerStopMagdalena
Village Farmers Market
Every Saturday 10am - 12pm
outside La Posada
Lodging and Stay
La Posada Bed & Breakfast
11180 West Highway 60 . Magdalena, NM 87825
www.laposadademariamagdalena.com
Western Motel
404 1st Street . Magdalena, NM 87825
High Country Lodge
303 1st Street . Magdalena, NM 87825
Magdalena Hall Hotel
404 2nd Street . Magdalena, NM 87825
Concho Hills Dude Ranch
1522 Remuda Trail . Magdalena, NM 87825
PRESS & MEDIA
New Home, Sweet Home
Tumbleweeds Caters to Community & Beyond
Story by Candolin Cook, Edible New Mexico Late Summer 2021 | July 1, 2021
On a sleepy Tuesday afternoon in Magdalena, Eddie Tsosie—a Navajo artist and bit of a local legend—pulls off of historic Route 60 and into Tumbleweeds Diner’s dusty parking lot. Having just opened in March 2021, the restaurant’s freshly painted white-and-turquoise exterior gleams against the muted high-desert landscape and unobstructed blue skies. A cow’s skull has been fastened to a front post and an eponymous tumbleweed lies dormant near the entrance. It is a classic roadside diner, straight out of central casting.
As Tsosie begins to pull a series of colorful, Native- and western-themed paintings from the trunk of his car, he is met by Tumbleweeds co-owner Osiris Navarro. She purchases a handful of Tsosie’s works on this visit, to go with several others already on display in the dining room. The diner’s walls are, in fact, covered with fine arts and crafts made by local artists, along with taxidermy and antiques gifted from community members or left over from the restaurant’s last incarnation as the Big Bear Cafe a dozen years ago.
Just as inviting as the decor are the aromas of green chile cheeseburgers, fried chicken, and mac-and-cheese filtering in from the kitchen. From grinding their own locally sourced beef to pickling their own veggies to creating their own dressings and sauces, most everything at Tumbleweeds is made from scratch, using quality, fresh ingredients.
Tumbleweeds Brings New Life to Magdalena’s West End
Those driving Highway 60 into Magdalena from the west in the last several weeks have noticed a flurry of activity in and around a building that has been vacant for well over a dozen years. It’s the transformation of the former Big Bear restaurant into the Tumbleweeds Diner.
As the name implies, the restaurant will feature New Mexican cuisine, as well as offering cuisine from different countries and cultures.
Owners Osiris Navarro, originally from The Philippines and Michal Goila, who hails from the Czech Republic will be offering cuisine to please all palates. Besides New Mexico favorites such as green chile burgers, enchiladas, rotisserie chicken, et al. they will eventually be hosting monthly “pop up” events featuring food from all over the world.
Osiris and Michal came to Magdalena from Seattle, where they ran a catering business called Gola’s Kitchen. Their migration from the Great Northwest to Socorro County took root one year ago this month.
“One of my best friends lives here. I came to visit her in January and we just fell in love with the place,” Osiris said. “We could see ourselves living in a small town. City life was so stressful. We just wanted a change of scenery.”
KOAT 7 - Celebrate New Mexico Feature
Story by Todd Kurtz | December 16, 2021
MAGDALENA, N.M. —
In this week's Celebrate New Mexico, Todd Kurtz heads to Magdalena where more and more people from big cities are moving to rural New Mexico to make a living. Watch the video above as he talks with a couple who recently left their successful catering business in Seattle, to enjoy the quieter pace of Magdalena.
Watch video segment below:
https://www.koat.com/article/celebrate-new-mexico-tumbleweeds-diner/38541956
New Mexico Magazine - Old West Disguise
Story by Kate Nelson, New Mexico Magazine | May 18, 2022
"Last year, Kapraun met Osiris Navarro and her husband, Michal Gola, who had driven from Seattle, Washington, to visit friends. The pandemic had stalled out their catering business, and when Kapraun showed them an empty restaurant to the west of town, Gola sold his apartment in the Czech Republic to buy it. The Tumbleweeds Diner specializes in fried chicken and house-cured bacon, but also dabbles in kimchi-topped hamburgers, curries, and lumpia (spring rolls), from Navarro’s Filipino heritage. “We didn’t want to gentrify Magdalena or be city slickers,” Navarro says, as a mount of a fedora-wearing mule deer gazes across her 10-table dining space. “It’s almost like a living room vibe.”"
"Adding a bit of rustic Americana to the diner’s Southwestern theme, the American Flag is proudly stretched out in its full glory across the length of the cashier counter; a cowhide covered footstool next to it on one side, a vintage metal beer cooler on top of a rattan table on the other.
The most extraordinary feature of Tumbleweeds Diner is found beyond its interior decor. Positioned above the village, the diner has unobstructed views of the desertscape for miles in every direction. With multiple, large square windows directly facing to the east and west, the sun provides a magnificent light show against the backdrop of the sky, bathing every corner of the diner in brilliant white during the day and showering it in dazzling gold at dusk. There’s also acreage on the side of the restaurant overlooking the mountains that opens during the warmer months to patrons and for special events." read full story here
"The food was hot, fresh and amazing! The homemade sauces and pickles really stood out, and the flavor on the chicken sandwich was perfect, not too hot but very tasty. The fries were perfectly cooked and went great with all their sauces! They serve beer and wine as well. My junior foodie got a chance to talk to Chef Michal and his wife Osiris gave us the tour. The murals on the outside of the building were all painted by Chef Michal." read the full story here
"I had a cheeseburger, which was the freshest and most flavorful burger I think I've ever eaten. All food is made on the premises. The menu isn't extensive but there are plenty of burger choices, and other dishes include the awesome Teriyaki, with rice and salad and a very good-sounding macaroni and cheese. I'll add for dog-people that Osirus is a true dog lover. They have homemade dog treats that they make at the cafe. Our dog-treat-picky hounds loved these and Osirus and Michael have a Maltese who does, too." read full story here
EVENTS
We plan and host events! If you are having a wedding, retreat, etc. and need help planning visit our sister company Golas Kitchen - Catering & Events to learn more about how we can help you! We have over 10 years experience planning events form weddings, fundraisers, flea markets, pop ups, festivals, and more. Below; photos of events we hosted at Tumbleweeds Diner and around the village.
We plan and host events! If you are having a wedding, retreat, etc. and need help planning visit our sister company Golas Kitchen - Catering & Events to learn more about how we can help you! We have over 10 years experience planning events form weddings, fundraisers, flea markets, pop ups, festivals, and more. Below; photos of events we hosted at Tumbleweeds Diner and around the village.
camp at tumbleweeds
Book a camping trip with us with one of our partners below. Harvest Host or Hip Camp. Camp on our Tumbleweeds Diner property and enjoy sweeping views of the high country mountains, breathtaking sunsets, crisp blue skies. Located along historic Highway 60 in Magdalena, New Mexico. Best suited for camper vans, road trek vehicles, car tents, RVs, car camping. Tent camping is suitable, but beware of winds! Toilets are available for guests to use during open business hours. We can also hook you up with any water with a heads up. Our sites have rustic picnic tables and we are just minutes away from outdoor activities and the village down town area. Feel free to stop by our diner for lunch or dinner where we serve burgers, fried chicken, enchiladas, you name it. If you arrive after we are closed, let us know and we can make arrangements to prepare you a meal.
