New owners, new life for Tinnie Silver Dollar

The new owners of the Tinnie Silver Dollar restaurant, aren’t ready to say exactly what they plan to do with their landmark property, but they know they need to start doing it soon.

“We have seasons in this business,” said Rick Rhoads of Roswell, “and the best seasons are just around the corner. There will be many events coming up. So we want to be able to look at trying to be ready for that.”

Rhoads and his wife Lynette didn’t have much time to make a business plan before they bought the Silver Dollar last month. The auction was announced less than three weeks before they either had to bid or let the opportunity pass. But they’re making up for lost time now.

“Basically, it all happened in an instant,” he said of the Rhoads’ Jan. 15 auction purchase. “We had a consultant come in this week, a restaurant consultant from Dallas, and we’ve visited with several other people.”

Rhoads is majority shareholder of Rhoads Co., the Roswell heating and plumbing company founded by his father, Bob Rhoads. His business includes several other enterprises specializing in construction and real estate development, both residential and commercial. Some are described at http://www.rhoadsco.com/rhoads-story.html.

But the decision to buy the Silver Dollar may have been made as much from the Rhoads’ hearts as from their heads. It was the scene of their engagement nearly 40 years ago in the summer of 1976 and they've made more happy memories there in the years since.

The Silver Dollar sits about halfway between Ruidoso and Roswell. With its gingerbread Victorian architecture and sprawling glass greenhouse-style event hall, it’s one of the most eye-catching manmade sights on the highway.

But its distance from population centers seems to have made it difficult for previous owners to turn it into a profitable business. Rhoads, who declined to say how much the family paid for the Silver Dollar, is still considering how best to change its luck.

“You take your pluses in one column, challenges in the other, and you determine what has the best opportunity to work and you start there,” he said. “That’s our process and goal.”

Until the Rhoads have considered the project carefully, there won’t be any grand announcements.

“You know, I own businesses and do developing and I see people come and go doing development projects,” he said in a telephone interview. “They say they’re going to do this, that and the other. And then they don’t do it. I’m not that kind of person.”

All he’s willing to say about the Silver Dollar’s future for now is that he and his wife are determined to make it as bright as they can.

“We want to purpose that building and its property for its best use for the community and the Hondo Valley, Ruidoso and Roswell and all the people traveling through,” he said.

The town of Tinnie traces its history to the 1870s. But the Silver Dollar owes its current look to a 1959 restoration commissioned by then-owner Robert O. Anderson of Roswell and performed by New Mexico designer and artist John Meigs.

More of the history and folklore surrounding the Silver Dollar can be found on its website at http://www.tinniesilverdollar.com/history/.

The Rhoads have formed a new company for the business they plan to build at, and possibly around, the Silver Dollar. They’re calling it the Tinnie Land and Mercantile Co. LLC.

Rhoads said other investors may join the project later on. And although it seems clear the Silver Dollar will continue to include a restaurant and special event venue, the Rhoads might not stop there.

“There may be other things,” Rhoads said. “There’s several things we can do in that location.”