Phil K.'s Fond Farewell: Beloved Bronxville Restauranteur Retires After 46 Years

"I feel like a celebrity!" said Phil Koutsis as two women pulled him over to take a photo. "All day I've been taking pictures."

With good reason. Saturday, June 19th was Phil K's grand farewell from Pete's Park Place Restaurant and Tavern, the Bronxville landmark the Koutsis family has owned for 73 years.

After spending 46 years and what he estimates to be about "65 percent" of his life inside the establishment, Koutsis is retiring, having sold the business to Yonkers'restauranteur John Lugano. "I want to spend more time with my [four] grandchildren and do some traveling while I'm still healthy," Koutsis, 69 said. "It was time."

Phil's father Peter opened the restaurant in 1937 before Bronxville became a chic hub on the Metro North line. While he didn't work there after school ("I was into sports") Koutsis did clock a lot of hours at Pete's as a teen.

"Me and my friends used to come here for lunch," he said. "We'd get cheeseburgers and fries. Even then we were known for our great burgers. It was fun."

Those fun memories were shared by many well-wishers who stopped by Saturday, including regulars Nancy Protzman, who took her usual table, and Bud Denniston.

"I've been coming here since I was 18," Denniston said.

Another regular, Cam Fairchild, sat at a table outside with his wife Kate and their friend Michael Baker.

"We all had our first drinks here," Cam reminisced. "Unlike at other places, at Pete's we actually had to wait until we turned 18 because Phil knew us and  his dad knew all our ages." Added his wife Kate, "Well, not all our ages."

Part diner, part pub, Pete's has two entrances.  The door addressed 18 Park Place enters into the seven-table restaurant where one wall is lined by a long Woolworthesque counter. The 20 Park Place entrance belongs to the cozy seven-booth bar with three TVs and a wall-mounted Rockola jukebox.

"This little area right here used to be the dance floor," said Mary Baker.

A native of the Wisconsin Dells, she moved to the Bronxville area 22 years ago to be a nanny, and meeting up at Pete's quickly became one of her favorite pastimes.

"I used to come here every night after work. It would be so crowded you had to wait for one person to leave so you could come in," she said.

Was it worth the wait? Baker smiled: "Yes. I met my husband here."

She's not the only one. Bartender Robyn Dempsey, who has worked at Pete's for 11 years, met her husband "and got engaged" in Pete's, as did waitress Joanne O'Connor. Over the years Koutsis said dozens of couples have made a love connection at 18-20 Park Place, earning him invites to more than 30 weddings.

Unlike his customers, Koutsis did not meet his wife Maryann at Pete's, though their love did blossom at its bar where Phil worked "to help out." Today they have two sons -- Phillip Jr., 42, and Gregory 38.

 "I'm going to miss this place," said Koutsis.

That's why he plans to take home a few momentos, including a wooden, 42-gallon beer keg that's been sitting in the basement for decades.

"I think it might have been a Rheingold or Ballentine Ale keg," he said. "I'm going to clean it up and put it in my backyard. They don't make [them] like that anymore."

Ask any of the camera-toting regulars who filled Pete's on Saturday, and they might say the same about Phil Koutsis.