“Everything in the house has so many different meanings to it,” Joy says. There are the eight different seasons of table settings, assembled from Joy’s grandmother’s collection; the “Talavera restroom,” featuring a Talavera-style toilet Joy painted herself; and a new mural, by Bisbee artist Judy Perry, honoring John, a world-class cyclist who died in a hit-and-run crash on his bicycle in 2023.
The property, on Brewery Avenue in Brewery Gulch, features two rentable units. The Nopales Suite (pictured) is a one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment with a kitchenette and is suitable for two guests. The larger Agave Casita is well suited for two, as well. And, along with its one bedroom and one bathroom, it features a full kitchen loaded with all the comforts of home. Both units are available through Airbnb.
Since opening in early August in Bisbee’s Warren neighborhood, the nine-table brainchild of Chris Dangerfield and Heather Reddon has been packed. And while Old Bisbee institutions such as Screaming Banshee Pizza and Café Roka focus on weekend traffic, this neighborhood gem is open for dinner Sunday through Wednesday.
The Dell’s original owner, Ed Smith, was on a buying trip in Los Angeles when he spotted the diner — which was built in Kansas in 1957 — decaying in someone’s backyard. He bought it and had it shipped to Bisbee.
“Ed and his partner, Rita Personett, completely restored it,” says the Dell’s current owner, Justin Luria. “There was a woman cooking at another restaurant in town, and they loved her food. They convinced her to start cooking at the diner by telling her they’d name it after her.”
“Some people are very excited about the fact that it’s rumored to be haunted,” owner Susan Sinsley says. “Others have canceled their reservations as soon as they walk in the door. But that’s only happened once or twice.”
Paranormal activity has drawn plenty of guests to this bed and breakfast, but the ghosts are just one aspect of a visitor’s trip back in time, Sinsley says: “We want [guests] to feel like they’re immersed in the 1880s and know a little about what life was like back then.”
Co-owner Maggie Kohanek opened the B&B in 2001 with her siblings. The family wanted to take care of their mother as she battled Alzheimer’s disease, and they bought the Gardens as a way to have an income while looking after her needs. “We had never done anything like that,” says Kohanek, who lives on the property and attends to guests as they come and go. “We didn’t know how to run a bed and breakfast or what to do.”
Canyon Rose occupies the top floor of the historic Allen Block Building in the heart of the city. The Allen family manufactured the distinctive textured bricks used to construct the building in 1904. Allen blocks, as they became known, were subsequently used throughout Southern Arizona.
