\u201cThe T cells in the illness were pre-cancerous, so I had to get a complete stem-cell transplant, and going through chemo twice \u2026 I was in my bedroom and I was just looking out the window and, you know, suffering and sick and the whole thing,\u201d Millich said. \u201cAnd I kept seeing all these trucks going down the road of course to the gas plants.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kept thinking, \u2018Where are these people eating? Are they going to Ignacio? Durango? The corner store? Do they have to bring their lunch? What if they don\u2019t bring their lunch? Are they going hungry?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
This led directly to the birth of Millich\u2019s business.<\/p>\n \u201cI kept thinking, what if, just to get my head out of being sick, I just started cooking for them? Like, what if I did breakfast burritos?\u201d she said. \u201cOf course, then my husband said, \u2018You have to have homemade tortillas because otherwise your burritos are going to be like everybody else\u2019s.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Millich started four years ago with a tiny food truck, about the size of a horse trailer. After her first season, she was able to buy a bigger one, but she had generated enough business that it had again become too small.<\/p>\n Two seasons in, Millich was able to gather enough money to sell the truck and she bought a small structure the size of a shed. She outfitted it with all the commercial-grade equipment. As they did when she opened, local companies and plants will send runners to Diane\u2019s to get tacos, burritos or burgers for their whole crew, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe said we want it comparable to any little restaurant you see in the area,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no heating at the restaurant, though, so it closes for the winter, from Oct. 1 until the beginning of March. When the restaurant is closed, Millich caters fulltime for small events.<\/p>\n The advice of Millich\u2019s husband, Myron Olguin, to feature homemade tortillas \u2013 which are made the way Millich\u2019s grandmother made them on the reservation \u2013 proved valuable.<\/p>\n \u201cHaving the homemade tortillas is what became our brand,\u201d Millich said. In addition to her own restaurant, she makes tortillas for Francisco\u2019s Restaurante Y Cantina<\/a> in downtown Durango. On one occasion, she sent her tortillas overnight to Michigan because a customer read about them on Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n Millich did not stop with just the tortillas and burritos, though.<\/p>\n \u201cAs I became more defined, and customers started coming more and more, then I thought, we\u2019ve got the breakfast burritos and regular burritos on the homemade tortilla, now we need that really good burger for lunch on a homemade tortilla,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The burgers are modeled after those served at Durango\u2019s Rocket Drive-In theater, which closed in 2004, she said. They\u2019re griddle-fried and available dry or smothered in red or green New Mexican chile.<\/p>\n Diane\u2019s also serves Frito pies and sopapillas. Everything at the restaurant is made there, down to the chips and salsa, with the exception of the fries, Millich said. Local flavor comes across in the salsa made with steamed tomatoes and chokecherry sauce.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just like really simple, down-home cooking, you could say,\u201d she said. It\u2019s \u201cNew Mexican food with a Native twist.\u201d<\/p>\n Cooking was always a part of Millich\u2019s life, she said. She previously worked at Francisco\u2019s with Ted Garcia, who was murdered in 2010.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was the culinary artist and I was just a cook.\u201d<\/p>\n Chemotherapy influenced her cooking, too, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re always told what you can and cannot eat, and you\u2019re always susceptible to illness and getting everybody\u2019s bugs, and I guess that\u2019s what taught me how to cook wholesomely.\u201d<\/p>\n Millich is a Southern Ute tribal member, and her restaurant is on the reservation.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way I was raised is, \u2018Our doors are always open to anyone who wants to come and eat,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re really just here to share the food that was given to me by past generations.\u201d<\/p>\n