New Diner Coming to Portsmouth

Southgate Plaza on Lafayette Road continues to add new businesses and restaurants, and soon Portsmouth area residents will be able to enjoy a slice of Americana via a 1940s vintage 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 diner will be attached to a new retail building that will be adjacent to a new 10-screen Cinemagic movie theater.

He said that by attaching the 1940s dining car to the new building, it will “make it a true, restored diner.” According to Waterstone Retail Development's website, the name of the eatery is Roger's Redliner Diner.

Richardson would not provide the name of the restaurant owner or the company that will bring the 1940s diner to Southgate Plaza. I 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.