Warden restaurant reopens its doors

WARDEN — The new owner of a recently opened Warden restaurant likes to keep things low-key.

Truth be told, Barbara Tomlinson feels more comfortable in the kitchen cooking than she does being front and center as the new owner of the Corral Restaurant, which reopened Jan. 20, in its location at 120 S. Main St.

"I tell people, you put me to sewing and I'm in jail," she said. "I hate to sew and I like to cook. It just makes all the trouble go away. It's more of a hobby than anything else."

A Moses Lake resident for nearly 15 years, Tomlinson eyed three other restaurant locations in town before purchasing the Corral.

"I've always wanted a place in Warden," she said. "Because this town's going to boom pretty soon."

Tomlinson said she's been in the restaurant business all her life, from her start as a dishwasher at the age of 16. She moved to Moses Lake to run a convenience store, she said, and then opened a restaurant in Moses Lake.

Tomlinson did not get specific about the length of the restaurant's history in Warden.

"It's been here forever," she said.

Remodeling the restaurant took six to eight months. The Corral employs seven people.

"There's a couple of restaurants here, but I wanted a family restaurant," she said. "That's what I opened it up for it to be, was a family restaurant."

Business is slower than Tomlinson would like, but she hopes to draw more people in with her homemade cooking and friendly atmosphere.

"I'd just like everybody to feel comfortable about coming here," she said. "If I can just make a comfortable living, I'm happy. I'm serving people, I like to cook. Serving people is what it's all about."

The Corral Restaurant is open for winter hours from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, from 7 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday, and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday. During the summer, the business opens earlier and closes later.