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Letter to the editor

If you ask her, she will play it

Kathy Roberts delights dinner guests with her encyclopedic repertoire.

By TAMARA EL-KHOURY
Published July 11, 2007

DUNEDIN - When she comes to your table with a pink froufrou pen, asking for a request, give her one.

You'll rarely stump her.

The woman with the short, curly dark hair and eyes as wide as her grin is your pianist tonight. She'll play you anything from Beethoven's Fifth to Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.

Dunedin's Bon Appetit Restaurant is known for its stunning waterfront view, its fabulous food and Kathy Roberts.

For five years, Roberts has played at the Dunedin restaurant, playing Ave Maria for the Sunday brunch crowd and Great Balls of Fire for the bold.

She'll play Happy Birthday while a waiter lights a candle on a cake and will even do a shimmy when a guest jokingly asks her if she's heard of a guy named Duke Ellington.

"Kathy is just wonderful; she is truly a professional," said the restaurant's owner, Peter Kreuziger. "I have never heard a guest request a song that she doesn't know. She has a wonderful repertoire and just really is a pro."

Elton John.

Queen.

Mozart.

N'Sync.

She plays it all and at a volume that allows guests to enjoy both the music and a conversation.

But while Roberts will play virtually anything you request, don't inquire about her age. She says she lies about her age, then tells you she's 50.

Still, let's take her at her word. That means Roberts knows a minimum of 1,000 songs for every decade of her life, or at least 5,000 songs in all. She grew up on a wheat farm in Washington and started playing the piano at age 8, then continued at the University of Idaho, where she majored in music.

A Clearwater resident for 20 years, Roberts is divorced and has raised four children, all of whom grew up playing the piano. She teaches 40 to 50 students, but she doesn't play for fun anymore.

"I've heard my own playing for over 40 years," she says, "and I'm tired of it."

Others are not.

On a recent night, Roberts sat down at Bon Appetit's red cherry wood grand piano and began to play several Beethoven pieces requested by a guest. At the table to the left of the piano sat Scott Nininger, 79, and Rita Jackson, who had been searching for Roberts.

For years they listened to her play at a Sand Key restaurant, which closed in 2000. When they found out she was at Bon Appetit, they came to hear her play.

"She's just a complete master of the instrument," said Nininger.

They requested Stella by Starlight and what Jackson said was an "old, old song" called Always.

As Roberts walks from table to table, gathering requests she stops for an unexpected reunion with June Middleton and her 14-year-old son, Kito Middleton. Several years ago mother and son took piano lessons from Roberts. June Middleton was at the restaurant for her mother's birthday celebration.

"Look at you, you gorgeous thing," she says to Kito Middleton.

Later, she'll play Clocks by Coldplay for him and take requests for Scott Joplin and Nat King Cole from his family.

Roberts' most requested songs are Memory from Cats and Lara's Theme from Dr. Zhivago. She learns about 10 new songs a month, but her favorite music to play is 1970s classic rock and classical. Beethoven is her man.

"I never get tired of it because it's fun sharing the beauty and excitement of music with people who want to hear it," she said.

A good night for tips at Bon Appetit is $80, and her biggest tipper ever was a guy she knew as Tequila Bob. When she played at now-defunct restaurant called the Gallery, he would throw in $100 bills. He once gave her $200 to introduce him to a pretty lady.

Back at Bon Appetit's piano, Roberts is just starting a piece when Ben Skinner, 86, walks to her. She stops and changes songs. She knows what to play.

As her fingers move over the keys, Skinner tears up. The first time he held his wife's hand was to this song. It was 1942, they were watching Casablanca and the song As Time Goes By was playing.

They were married 61 years before she died in 2004, he said.

He thanks her, wipes his eyes and walks towards the door. He claps as he leaves the restaurant and she sends him out with his other favorite song, Mack the Knife.

She knows what to play.

Tamara El-Khoury can be reached at tel-khoury@sptimes.com or 727 445-4181.

IF YOU GO

To hear Kathy Roberts

Where: Bon Appetit Restaurant, 148 Marina Plaza, Dunedin

When: 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday and noon to 3 p.m. Sunday

[Last modified July 10, 2007, 20:50:27]