The Texas Restaurant That Double-Dips As A Newspaper Office

If you thought local journalism was dead, you likely haven't been to Marfa, Texas, the home of an eclectic cafe that doubles as a news room for The Big Bend Sentinel. That doesn't mean the journalists just hang out sipping lattes and espressos all day — the historic white adobe building actually serves as the thriving heartbeat of local news for the region. It's far from a fly-by-night indie journal, but rather a traditional, century-old newspaper that has been delivering local news for Presidio County and Far West Texas since 1926. 

Now, they just do it surrounded by a whole lot of good coffee, locally inspired cuisine, lively conversation, regional art, and afternoon cocktails. Reporters venture into the wider community to dig up important stories, but there's surely a wealth of juicy news tips lurking within the artsy walls of their roommate, The Sentinel cafe and cocktail bar. It's open from early morning to mid-afternoon — just enough time for tales to fly from coffee cup chatter to written articles, and finally, to printed pages. 

In the spirit of true journalism, the newspaper covers core topics such as voting, education, border walls, and regional concerns like desert plant conservation — but it also digs deep into local culture, as noted by the art-filled cafe walls, exhibits, and tables stacked with pottery, textiles, jewelry, books, and basketry. Then there's the food. In addition to morning cappuccinos and baked goods, The Sentinel reflects border-state Mexican cuisine, dishing out the likes of spicy chicken pozole stew, butternut squash tacos, barbacoa, and steak tortas.

There's a lot going on in that quaint adobe structure in Marfa, Texas, a city that is home to about 1,700 residents. But folks come from far and wide to mix, mingle, eat, drink, pontificate, and attend art openings in The Sentinel, some on their way to experience the town's art installations by the famous late architect and artist Donald Judd. It's hard to imagine now that the buzzy cafe/cocktail bar/newsroom previously housed a funeral home. 

That could explain the double entendre, intentional or not, printed on The Sentinel's merch gear: "Print is not dead." But the venue did at one point house the dead on their final leg of life's journey. The newspaper was eventually purchased in 2019 by Max Kabat and his Texas-native wife, Maisie Crow, a journalist with a documentary film produced by The New York Times. The couple had been living in New York City, but planted new roots in Marfa, furthering their convictions that local journalism should come from those living and connecting with communities on a daily basis. 

That was even more reason to expand the community spirit by launching The Sentinel cafe, cocktail bar, community space, and retail shop in the same space as the newspaper, all the while increasing revenue to support the printed page. Food and news could be seen as unlikely bedfellows — especially when bolstered by coffee drinks like Iced Spanish Lattes and Susto Seco cocktails — but it sure seems to be working in a dusty desert town called Marfa.