By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Katie Ladd practically grew up at Kermit’s, where the grills start sizzling early in the morning and customers come for affordable food and amiable conversation at 307 S. Main St. in Bowling Green.
It’s a place where regulars show up every weekday morning. When wait staff see customers’ cars pull in, they prep their preferred booths, and the cooks are frying up their favorite menu items before they even get inside.
It’s that kind of place – drawing in townies and college students with its homey feel and hearty breakfasts. A place where they can fill up on corned beef hash, hotcakes and home fries. A place where the chatter can get rather loud, and the coffee cups are filled with frequency.
This is where Katie Ladd – the new owner of Kermit’s – considers home.
As a young child, Katie and her sister, Kylie, used to sleep in the back corner booth as their mom, Tammy Stahl, served up early morning breakfasts for regulars. When it was time for school, the girls would walk to the nearby South Main Elementary.
“Every year, their legs would stick out a bit further” in the booth, their mom said. “We pretty much raised our girls here.”
When Katie Ladd turned 14 she started working at Kermit’s – and she’s been cooking up and serving food there for the past 15 years.
So when the owners, Jim and Barb Maas, wanted to sell the diner, Katie saw her chance.
“I’ve always wanted my own business,” she said. “There’s no better place than this.”
And it was only fitting that when Katie Ladd bought the restaurant and wanted to spruce it up a bit that her whole family was there on Monday, painting the previously dark red walls, fixing booths, and cleaning everything. In addition to her mom and sister, her father, Chuck Ladd, was there pitching in on New Year’s Day.
Katie, who filled her last shift on Sunday after about 10 years at Easystreet, has plans to reopen Kermit’s at 6 a.m. on Friday (Jan. 5).
The restaurant has a storied past, starting out as the Wagon Wheel, then Crankers, before it became Kermit’s (named after a grandfather in the Maas family) 37 years ago.
The family connections are many at the diner, with Jim Maas being a cousin of Katie’s dad, who has worked at Kermit’s for 35 years. Katie’s mom worked at the diner nearly 20 years, and her sister has been there 17 years.
“This is home,” Kylie Ladd said.
It’s not just the Ladd family that feels that way.
“Our customers become family,” Kylie said, adding that many long-time patrons even attend the Ladds’ family reunion.
The diner is packed most mornings, with employees and patrons who are on a first-name basis. When the restaurant opens, the regulars are waiting.
“The same 20 people walk in, and she has their food started before we get the ticket in,” Kylie Ladd said of Katie’s quick skills in the kitchen.
“We get our orders out faster than McDonald’s,” Kylie Ladd said, adding that at Kermit’s the eggs are the real thing.
Many of the townies frequent the diner on weekdays and avoid weekends, when students often pack the place.
As new owner, Katie Ladd intends to continue cooking in the kitchen. The restaurant name will remain the same, and most of the menu items won’t change. But Katie hopes to bring back a few items that had been dropped from the menu – such as the “Piggy Tandoori,” which is ham, swiss, lettuce, tomato, with “double K” sauce on Tandoori Naan bread. She also plans to switch up the hot roast beef by offering it on grilled garlic bread as well as white bread.
“The changes are going to come gradually,” her dad said. “It’s like they say, ‘don’t fix it if it ain’t broke.’”
Katie Ladd would also like to see the return of some popular items that went by the wayside during COVID – like homemade pies and homemade soups.
And because it’s her all-time favorite, the liver and onions will remain on the menu.
Starting Friday, Kermit’s will open a little earlier on weekdays, starting at 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Weekend hours will be from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
