Nellie Cashman’s Restaurant

~ This restraint is now permanently closed, and is the site for the new Café Margarita ~

Nellie Cashman’s was Tombstones oldest restaurant for years.
Nellie Cashman was a kind woman and part of Tombstone’s rich history and was known as «The Angel Of The Camp» because of all her good deeds. Among her many business holdings, she owned and ran her restaurant at this same address. The original adobe building from the 1880’s in old Tombstone is still here.
The Good News is that while the building is still there… Bad News is, UNFORTUNATELY — it’s NOT called Nellie Cashman’s anymore… BUT it’s been sold several times over and is now called
«Café Margarita».
Don’t Waste Your Time. It’s an big insult to Nellie Cashman’s story. Instead for making a Nellie Cashman /​Tombstone kind of theme to the place, it’s just another — not very good — restaurant.
Café Margarita has the balls to NOT mention on the outside in front of the restaurant, nor inside the place, nor on the menu and neither on the web site, is there any homage to Nellie Cashman history or her old Tombstone restaurant. (if it was there, I never saw it. I had to ask to make sure I was in the correct place)
Instead we have a Mexican themed restaurant inside and out, Mexican music playing with a stupid schizophrenic menu, that not only has Mexican food on it but Italian food and Hot dogs and Hamburgers as well! What the Hell… really?
The only Nellie thing I saw, was around the corner of the restaurant outside in the back is a sign hanging up high that does say the name «Nellie Cashman».
The Food:
The chips and salsa were good, but it’s because I’ve tasted the salsa before somewhere… I think it’s from Costco. That doesn’t make it bad… but they should make their own salsa! I don’t «know» if it was actualy home made… but. I know when I had something from the store.
The creamed corn soup was good and I would say it gets
about a «B-​». I also had the bruschetta; it was a large amount and was made with large slices of toasted french bread, not the small baguette size you would think. It consisted of chopped tomatoes & onions with a balsamic viniger drizzle… not a big deal, so it gets
a «C-​» at best.
Lastly, my Chimichanga Plate — I ordered it with the green chile apose to the red, with refried beans and roasted corn. The corn was real good… it gets a «B-​» but the refried beans had a watered down taste to them. It was like they ran out of beans or were making them last longer… so they get a real nice «D-​». Then the Chimichanga… fried in a flower tortilla and I orded the beef. I guess the green chile was cooked in the meat, but I was thinking it would be a sauce on top. The meat was jusicy but Not too flaverful over all, and it was just the meat inside of it, nothing else. It was a big waste of my toung’s time to taste. It gets a solid «D+»
Over all, it’s a kick in the crouch for poor Nellie Cashman. The Café Magarita has no love here Nellie and no love for good food or good business ideas.

Nellie Cashman’s is now Café Margarita. It’s under new management, has been redmodeled, better food and great service. Read the reviews for Café Margarita.

It is no more. The owners who received the wonderful reviews have sold it. The New owner gutted it, put arches along the back and the stuccoed the walls and painted them cream. The wonderful 1880’s atmosphere is gone!
It now looks like a Mexican Catina. Don’t know about the food, but they say Mexican.

Had the best breakfast here that I have ever had in the Wild West :)
Ordered the cheese omelette which was unbelievable tasty and presented so well. The cheese was layered to perfection … I don’t know how the chef did it! I did not expect the breakfast to be this good. My husband is still raving about the home made plum jam that he layered on anything and everything he could possibly layer it on.
The coffee was good and constantly refilled by our fantastic waitress.
Another plus with this restaurant is that it is in fact the original 1882 building known back then as Nellie Cashman’s Hotel. There is a fascinating story and history to this restaurant … parts of it can be found on the walls through old photographs, posters and other memorabilia and there is much more history to be found on the restaurant’s website.
If you are in Tombstone you will not find a better breakfast spot in my opinion.

Going out to eat when you are not really hungry can certainly affect one’s attitude when it comes to the food and service of a restaurant. Such was the quandary that I found myself in on a recent visit to the town too tough to die. Sure Tombstone can be kitschy and tourists rule, but that doesn’t mean the food has to follow suit.
I found this out when stepping into Nellie Cashman’s. The smells wafting around the entrance were intoxicating, and I decided to put my lack of appetite in Time Out for the time being. We were warmly greeted and seated by our waitress Elsa. She made recommendations, got our drinks going and joked with us in a way that you knew was genuine. When I told her I like my meat, err, hamburger, cooked as if it had been run it through a warm room, she was most obliging.
The burgers were huge and the fries were home cut and cooked to perfection. Elsa magically appeared when glasses needed refills and plates needed to be removed, but was otherwise invisible. She brought the check in a timely manner (that is a pet peeve of mine… HATE waiting for the check to show up… I’ve got places to go and things to do people!!!) and thanked us for taking the time to spend our lunch hour with them.
BONUS POINT: Elsa knew Nellie Cashman’s entire history and you could tell she was in awe of her accomplishments. If you don’t know who she is, google her people.

Ate here during a brief layover in Tombstone.
It’s the city’s oldest restaurant!
Great atmosphere, good home style cookin’, decent service and the best part: The THRILL of eating in a history-​rich restaurant such as this one! Doc Holliday, for instance, was a fan of Nellie’s cooking & often sat right where we did.
How cool is that?
They even have a veggie burger! That rocked. I totally didn’t expect that one!
In case you haven’t figured it out yet– Don’t go here looking for gourmet cuisine. It’s just good old fashioned grub. Emphasis on the «good» part. ;)
Hey, lemme put it to you this way: Doc liked it. Its gotta be good!!!
*****BY THE WAY I noticed this place gets «$$» price rating… How can this be? A burger’s under $ 6! People aren’t voting right. It should say «$»!*****

The most tolerable food in the Allen Street area. Not saying much.
Went there for lunch and the service is excellent.
Accross the street is a second rate gunfight reenactment called Six Gun City. After you eat at Nellie Cashman’s you can stroll accross the street and ask one of the reenactors to shoot you in the head.
That’s the only way out of Tombstone.

Uh, ok. Not worth repeating a visit to this restaurant.
My daughter had a turkey breast sandwich that was made w/​slices of turkey breast… the perfectly oval, each slice the same size, kind you buy in the grocery store. Price was cheap, but still, I want a sandwich that I wouldn’t make at home, like a real breast or deli thin slices of actual turkey breast.
The restaurant and building is up for sale, so if anybody wants to own a restaurant and wants to rock some good restaurant fare, Tombstone is ripe for the picking. There ain’t much there worth writing home about. Town pretty much shuts down by 5, so at night, at least non-​weekend nights, you could close up shop.

It’s been a couple of years, but it would be hard to forget this place. The food is «home style», and lots of good food. If I remember correctly, most of us had the «Cowboy Breakfast», fried potato, onion, green pepper, eggs and sausage — been long enough I can’t remember the details other than it was very tasty and we have been cooking something similar at home since the trip there.
It was a great place to stop between Tuscon and Agua Prieta, Mexico. This is the oldest restaurant in Tombstone, and is worth a visit for that alone.

I had a fairly good experience here. The food is definitely «home-​style», which I appreciated. The staff was exceptionally friendly and warm. My only gripe, it was dead silent. You could hear others breath. Maybe if they would play a little music or something, that would be nice. I would think kids could come, IF THEY BEHAVE and are QUIET. It’s not Chucky Cheese!