Old Monarch Diner to Get New Life in Portsmouth

A former Seacoast area diner that sat in storage for the last several years  returned to Portsmouth on Friday morning where it will soon be open for business.

Roger's Redliner Diner arrived at Southgate Plaza on Friday morning with a State Police escort after it was trucked up from Salisbury, Mass. It is the latest new restaurant venture for Roger Elkus, owner of the Me and Ollie's Bakery Cafe's and the new Ole Burritos and Beer in downtown Portsmouth.

"We are keeping the diner as it is," said Daryl McGann, the general manager of Me and Ollie's Bakery Cafe.

He said the former Monarch Diner that once served patrons in Dover from 1950 to 1969 will reopen for business in October and everything from the original interior decor to the menu will reflect a slice of Americana that many people still crave.

McGann said breakfast will be served all day and there will also be a lunch and dinner menu. The new diner will be staffed with 24- to 26 full-time and part-time people. The menu will feature many diner favorites like shepherd's pie, lobster pie, and fishermen's platters, he said. There will also be plenty of homemade pies that will be displayed in a traditional dessert case.

"We're going to bring diner food into the 21st century," McGann said.

McGann said that after the former Monarch Diner left Dover, it was stored in South Berwick, Maine for several years before it was purchased by collector Steve Pritchard in Salisbury, Mass. He said he and Elkus first discovered the diner in March 2012 and immediately fell in love with it.

The diner was orginally constructed by O'Mahoney Diner Co. in Elizabeth, N.J. and when it reopens as Roger's Redliner Diner it will seat up to 60 people, McGann said. The diner will be placed on a concrete foundation pad located on the right side of the Southgate Plaza that faces Water Country, he said.

When asked why he and Elkus decided to open a diner, McGann replied, "This is enjoyable and that is the same reason we did Ole."

McGann continued that they want to "restore some of that old hometown that feeling that Portsmouth has always had."

McGann said he and Elkus are well aware that the city currently has the Roundabout Diner and Gilley's Diner, but he said their new diner will be different than those other restaurants. He said he and Elkus are also proud of the fact that they are restoring an old diner that once existed in the Seacoast instead of constructing a new diner.

"There are only a few thousand diners left and there are more that are being lost then are being restored," McGann said.

He believes the combination of good food, great service and the yearning that people have for American nostalgia will prove irresistible for Portsmouth area resdients and visitors, He also said Roger's Redliner Diner will be one of several home grown restaurants that have chosen to locate in the Southgate Plaza. They will not serve alcohol because the Ninety-Nine Restaurant and Pub holds an exclusion in its lease that allows its parent company in Woburn, Mass., to prevent other restaurants from serving liquor, beer and wine.