Somers' "Cheers" Returns to South Road

As she sat for a moment in a back booth near the lunch counter at her new restaurant, Kathleen Birkenshaw looked frazzled, but the type frazzled that is a good mixture of excitment and slightly overwhelmed.

“It’s a whole different ballgame now,” she said.

Birkenshaw, a long time waitress at the Playhouse Plaza Restaurant on South Road (Route 83), and her husband Dave purchased the popular eatery in February. For seven weeks they’ve cleaned, remodeled a section of the kitchen and updated some of the equipment, electrical and plumbing to make the business more energy efficient.

And they changed the name, just a bit. It is now known as Kathy’s Playhouse Plaza Restaurant

“It is a bit overwhelming, but it really just feels like home, like we’ve never left. It’s the way it should be,” Kathy said just before a customer came in with an employment application for her son.

The original Playhouse Plaza Restaurant opened in 1964 on Main Street near the Town Hall. Through the years it’s had seven different owners – the Birkenshaw’s being the seventh - yet it has remained a mainstay in the community.

Kathy waited tables at the restaurant for 27 years, until it closed suddenly on Jan. 31. Dave worked as a dishwasher for one of the original owners when he was a teenager; he now owns Birkenshaw Electric.

It’s safe to say that the plaza restaurant means more to them than just another place to eat.

Thursday afternoon Jane Gamble, a Somers resident for 47 years, stopped in to check out the interior and inquire about its hours.

Until January, Gamble and friends from the would frequent the eatery each Sunday after services.

“The Plaza has always had good food and a relaxed atmosphere. It’s just a nice place to go for brunch on a Sunday after church,” said Gamble, whose son worked for one of the original owners when he was a teenager. “I’ve missed it.”

“It’s also nice that someone from town bought it, not an outsider,” she added.

“It was a big loss when it closed,” Kathy said. “It was a meeting place in town.”

Much of the staff remains the same and customers may recognize some old faces as the fifth owners of the restaurant, Linda Parker and John Panciera, have returned to help. Chefs John Bonanno and Karl Pieper have also returned. Although she now owns the place, Kathy said she cannot stay out of the dinning room; she intends to wait tables at least twice a week and fill in as needed.

“I have great support and a great husband,” Kathy said of the people who have encouraged her during the process.

“The staff loves this place. My wife loves this place. She should be able to retire here,” Dave said.

Kathy’s Playhouse Plaza Restaurant seats 113 people and is open Mondays through Thursdays from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m., Fridays from 6 a.m. until 8:30 p,m., Saturdays from 7 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. and Sundays from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m.. Its specials are fresh seafood, full turkey dinners daily and prime rib and lobster on Fridays and Saturdays.