Whether she was at the grocery store or the hair salon, Kathy Baxter said Lampasas residents always asked her, “Are you ever going to open The Green Frog again?”
Now, the answer is yes, and Baxter couldn’t be more thrilled.
The lifelong Lampasas County resident was shocked at the response she received when The Green Frog reopened its doors last month for the first time in nearly 20 years.
“It has been amazing. I feel so blessed and so humbled,” Baxter said. “I was totally blown away, I really was. I thought it would be OK, but I never dreamed it would be this good.”
Previously, Baxter served her menu of soups, salads and sandwiches at the historic Hostess House. In those days, the building was leased by the Oran Milo Roberts Chapter Daughters of the Republic of Texas.
At the original Green Frog Tea Room, Baxter started with just 16 seats before quickly expanding to serve up to 75 guests. Also, she served as the DRT’s booking agent, helping coordinate 52 to 54 weddings and anniversaries a year, plus class reunions and other gatherings.
Baxter selected the name “The Green Frog” from a list handed to her by the DRT.
“They said, ‘What do you want to name the tea room?’ I said, ‘It has to be something that is catchy, and something people will remember,’ ” Baxter said. “And, I chose the Green Frog.”
Baxter sold The Green Frog in 2009 and soon after opened her flower shop, Petal Peddlers. In fact, it was Baxter’s second time having her own floral boutique. Before she operated her eatery in the Hostess House, she had her own floral studio.
Baxter’s passion for flowers and food comes from her time in home economics classes at Lampasas High School. The 1968 graduate credits her teacher, the late Claudine Bear, for putting her on the path she is on today.
“I learned so much from her,” Baxter said. “I learned about presentation and just grew to love it. And you either love the food service and the flower business, or you don’t like either one.
“She always said, until she died, ‘I can always count on Kathy to be washing the dishes or getting stuff ready,’ ” Baxter said of her former teacher. “Back then, we cooked and fed the school board and things like that. I can remember doing a baked Alaska, and I thought that was the neatest thing.”
These days, The Green Frog is located within the Market Place at Sulphur Creek at 302 W. 10th St. The restaurant is open Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Baxter still serves all her favorites like her whitemeat chicken salad on a croissant or bread, grilled chicken with Swiss and avocado on a sourdough bun, and a variety of homemade soups — tortilla, broccoli cheese and potato — each served with a fresh corn muffin. Other popular items include the chicken Caesar salad, Cali salad, steakhouse wedge salad with grilled sirloin and a rotating selection of homemade desserts. Everything is made from scratch with nothing fried.
“I guess you could say it’s semi-healthy,” Baxter noted. “You know, I use a lot of butter, but still...”
Over the years, Baxter has skimmed through recipe books and other restaurant menus to give her ideas. Items like the chicken avocado she crafted herself.
“It is my signature line, probably the most popular thing I have,” she said. “It is half of an avocado stuffed with chicken salad, and it comes with fruit salad and a corn muffin.”
For those eager to get a taste of Baxter’s fixings, it’s probably best to show up early.
“We had people come in at 10:40 in the morning, and we open at 11, and they stay for a couple of hours after they eat because they want to visit,” she said. “ We’ve even had people sitting outside on the patio. To me that is unbelievable, as hot as it is, that they want to eat my food sitting out there.”
In October, Baxter will turn 77 years old. She is not short on energy, however, and doesn’t plan to slow down anytime soon.
“I’ve always been like this; I just can’t sit still,” she said. “I love food. I love to please people. That is all I want to do is please them. When they have a good meal and they are happy, I am happy.”
