‘I Ain’t Broke Yet’ : Time Passed Cafe By 30 Years Ago, but Its Griddle Is Kept Hot

For 10 years, Martha’s Cafe had this part of the Mojave Desert almost all to itself.

It stands 25 miles east of Barstow on what was California 91, once the main Los Angeles-to-Las Vegas road, and it was a popular stop for motorists.

Then, in 1962, Interstate 15 was opened. California 91 was virtually abandoned. Whole stretches of it just disappeared. “The new freeway robbed me of my highway trade,” sighed 86-year-old Martha Linden, who stands a lively 5 feet 2 inches and weighs 185 pounds.

Even though few have traveled this old road in the last 30 years, Linden never closed her cafe.

Martha’s Cafe is still open seven days a week, Thanksgiving, Christmas and all the other holidays. If a dozen customers are served, it’s a busy day. Many days, no one shows up at all.

It’s the same funky old 1950s eatery with the same old pool table, same jukebox playing 1950s records, same nine orange leather counter chairs, now patched, their stuffing oozing, and two booths in a corner.

And that World War II pinball machine--it hasn’t moved or worked in years. “I can’t get anyone to come out this far to fix it,” laments Linden.

For breakfast, she serves ham and eggs and bacon and eggs. The rest of the day, hamburgers, cheeseburgers and chili burgers. That’s it.

“Best hamburgers anywhere in the desert,” insists Dennis Casebier, a longtime patron of the cafe and chairman of Friends of the Mojave Road, a 900-member, conservation-minded recreational vehicle organization. “Any time I’m in the area, I stop. Martha’s always here.”

For years, Linden recalled, her business had boomed. “Then overnight the roof fell in when the interstate opened. Everybody figured I’d throw in the towel. My place was paid for. I decided I’m staying come hell or high water. It’s been a struggle. But I ain’t broke yet.

“Sure, I’m stubborn. But no one can call me a quitter,” she said. “Forty years ago I escaped L.A., the rat race and all that traffic. I came out here a widow with six kids, bought five acres of raw desert. I built my cafe with my own hands and with the help of two teen-age sons. We poured the cement, pounded the nails, put up the walls, the ceiling, the roof, the whole works.”

She once owned a Mohawk gas station along with the cafe. But when the old highway was abandoned and gas sales plummeted, the pumps were removed. To make ends meet, Linden crochets and sells afghans, baby blankets and sweaters, doll clothes and potholders. She strings beads and makes ceramics. Until she remarried 17 years ago, she lived in a rock house on her property. Now she and her husband, Mel, who is retired, live in a trailer next to the cafe. She has 25 grandchildren, 33 great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren.

“I enjoy the peace and quiet and visiting with the few people who find this out-of-the-way place and pop in for a bite to eat,” she mused.

“Biggest excitement around here is when one of my eight cats chases off a sidewinder or lizard.”