New Diner Coming to Portsmouth

Portsmouth area residents and visitors who are in the mood for fare that includes a slice of Americana will soon have a new vintage 1940s diner.

According to Douglas Richardson of Waterstone Retail Development, the company that owns the Southgate Plaza where businesses such as McKinnon's Butcher Shop and Shio's Japanese restaurant are located, the new Roger's Redliner Diner will be attached to a new retail building that will be adjacent to a new 10-screen Cinemagic movie theater.

Richardson said the diner, which is owned by Roger Elkus of Me and Ollie's Bakery Cafe, is scheduled to be transported from Salisbury, Mass., to the Lafayette Road shopping plaza sometime on Friday. He said the dining car will then be placed on its new foundation sometime on Monday.

Attempts to get comment from Elkus or Me and Ollie's Bakery Cafe General Manager Daryl McGann on Thursday afternoon were unsuccessful. Earlier this month, Elkus recently transformed the downtown Portsmouth Me and Ollie's Bakery Cafe on Pleasant Street into the new Ole Burritos and Beer restaurant that opened on Tuesday.

Previously, Richardson said that by attaching the 1940s dining car to the new building, it will “make it a true, restored diner.”

It was not clear on Thursday if the new Roger's Redliner Diner will serve alcohol. The Ninety-Nine Restaurant's parent corporation in Woburn, Mass., which has been located at the Southgate Plaza for more than 10 years, has a lease agreement that allows it to refuse to allow new restaurants to serve alcohol. The Ninety-Nine Restaurant's parent corporation recently refused to allow The Cemita Shack to serve alcohol and currently on Shio's Japanese Restaurant is allowed to serve alcohol.

with approximately 1,280 seats and a 20,000-square-foot retail building on the north end of the site and that construction would begin this spring.