Manufacturer: Maddock Pottery
User: Frogy's Cafe
Pattern name: Three Ornaments #7010
Distributor: Beamish Glassware Co., Kansas City
Date of platter: Circa 1913
Notes: Seldom has there been so much hyperbole connected to the opening of a men's club as there seemingly was for Frogy's Cafe in Kansas City in 1913, only for all news accounts except one to disappear immediately after the grand opening.
The Dec. 2, 1913, nearly half-page story in the Kansas City Post heralding the opening of Frogy's Cafe began with not one headline, but a hed, a subhed, and a dek:
"Kansas City's Most Elaborate Gentlemen's Cafe Opens to the Public Tomorrow Noon
"LOOK FOR THE BIG GREEN FROG
"W. A. "Frogy" Eastes, Known Here for the Last Twenty Years, Will Tickle the Palates of Business Men With Everything That Is Good to Eat and Drink, at His Grill and Cafe, Located at 1428 Grand Avenue."
The story, linked below, with so much emphasis on expense of furnishings, comparisons with first-class cafes, and cleanliness, was surely a sign of the times and an effort to draw diners to its Grand Avenue location, which was at the south end of the business district and ostensibly a bit of a jog for the intended clientele.
Prior to the restaurant business, Eastes had several unnamed interests in the stockyards, and in 1929, years after Frogy's quick disappearance, there was a reference in Kansas City to W. A. Eastes Mercantile Company.
It's worth noting that Eastes's name for his restaurant fondly referred his adult nickname of Frogy, and it was probably an upgrade from his oddly related childhood nickname of Toady.
An article in a 1914 issue of The Mixer and Server refers to a report, dated Dec. 26, 1913, about a Dec. 2 meeting of Waiters' Local 19, "which had a large attendance, on account of contemplated trouble at Frogy's cafe, which was to open the following day. The matter was given a lengthy and thorough discussion, and it was decided to call a special meeting of the Local Joint Executive Board the following morning. Details of the work concerning the strike and boycott have been reported to the general office, and I will just give a brief synopsis of the case," (which you can read in the clipped article shown above.)
It is not known if Frogy's opened and flourished without benefit of future advertising and despite seemingly beginning with a boycott, or if the men's club failed to meet the enthusiasm with which it was planned and met an unexpectedly early demise.
The platter, decorated entirely in dark green, has a strong line near the rim and a thinner pinstripe inside that is intersected by Maddock's Three Ornaments pattern and at the top by a drawing of a frog on lily pad with below, in caps: Frogy. Reference is made to this frog in the description of the restaurant's entrance: "In front of his up-to-date establishment on Grand avenue is a huge green bull-frog. On it is the electric sign – 'Frogy's Cafe.'" And the exterior view photo, shown above, is that sign clearly depicting the same frog as on the platter in profile facing left, above "Frogy's Cafe," and underneath: "For Gentlemen."
Sources:
Kansas City Post, Dec. 2
Kansas City Journal, Dec. 3, 1913
Mixer and Server, 1914
Contributors:
Roland Burritt: ID
Ed Phillips: research that yielded the smoking gun