New owners have grand opening for Red Zinnia

Red Zinnia has been purchased by a longtime customer, and a grand opening was recently held.

As the new owner, Teya Telford said she would like to reassure customers who have also shopped at Red Zinnia for years that all the favorite things about Red Zinnia at 111 S. Taylor St. will stay the same.

“We still have the same employees who are happy to help you select a gift for a friend or loved one, to help you choose a wine or beer to try, or just be a friendly face in the shop while you browse,” she said.

Red Zinnia will be adding some wonderful new things as well.

The shop now has its “Wind down Wednesdays” — a fun, relaxing environment to have a glass of wine or beer after work mid-week from 5-9 p.m. Also, Saturday evening beer tastings also started in May. And the biggest new change to Red Zinnia is the addition of small plates tailored to go with the night’s tasting event or wine/beer offering for the evening.

The menu items will change often and will be available for sale along with other alcoholic offerings for the evening.

Having a background in culinary arts and wine pairing, it was only a natural next step for Telford to add a food element to wine, beer, and gift selection.

“To let everybody know a little more about me, I moved to Fallon in 2008 (and have lived here most of that time, though I did go to Las Vegas for a year and a half to attend and graduate from culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu),” she said. “I settled in Fallon after I got out of the Army, where I was a linguist, because my family had also settled here after having retired from military service. I have been working the past three years as a tax accountant for Jackson Hewitt, but I have also worked at many nice restaurants over the past eight years here in Fallon, Lake Tahoe, and Las Vegas.”

While those careers were rewarding to Telford, she said she always wanted to be a business owner.

“As a single parent of a beautiful 2-year-old daughter, I needed to find a way to be able to support both of us and also still have enough time with her to be a good parent,” she said. “ Then, upon talking with Susan Henderson about her business one day and finding out that she might be willing to sell her business, it just seemed like the perfect opportunity to combine all the things I wanted into one beautiful package.

She said taking over this gift shop and wine bar allows her the opportunity to provide a living for her and her daughter and also have a career in which she is passionate: helping customers, selling wine and beer, making food that people love and selling unique gift items.