What was supposed to be a complicated reopening process after the COVID-19 pandemic turned into a 5-year struggle for small business owner Lance Roberts and his Topanga Canyon restaurant Froggy’s. Now, the 32-year community staple is at risk of not reopening at all. 

The Froggy’s owner told The LA Local that for nearly five years, he’s been following the different required processes and working towards a deadline, but the rules have constantly been changing which has made sustaining himself difficult. 

“I’ve just had to sell everything I own. I’ve had to sell my house out in Joshua Tree. It was going to be my little retirement home. And that was sad. And then I pretty much exhausted all my savings and I had to put a mortgage on the family house just to be able to keep everything,” Roberts said.

Now after more than half-a-decade of struggling, in order to reopen the restaurant must get approval of a conditional permit needed to serve alcohol.

The restaurant is scheduled for a county hearing on June 10, where it will seek a Type 47 On-Sale General Eating Place license, which would allow beer, wine and distilled spirits to be served on-site with food.

The origins of Froggy

As soon as you step into Froggy’s in Topanga, the space feels like an itchy but comforting blanket that’s kept your family warm for generations. It’s the kind of place you couldn’t recreate if you tried.

The current space, a former schoolhouse, is filled with different couches, dining tables and a pool a table, mosaic tiles with frogs and different shapes accent the kitchen tile and bar and gifts from old regulars like a wooden Scrooge McDuck with chipped paint in the patio area are scattered throughout the restaurant.

Frogs from a nearby creek croak so loudly customers have asked to “turn down the track” and the deep green forest makes you feel like you’re further away from Los Angeles than you really are.

Roberts, 75, has a towering presence with a dry sense of humor and a soft spot for nature, his barn cat named Freeway and the hummingbirds that visit his patio.

He opened with the name Froggy’s — inspired by Froggy the Gremlin, a character from old radio shows — after losing his former restaurant the Topanga Fish Market due to an arson fire in 1994. Roberts has dozens of stories of Topanga community members and even celebrities like Oscar-winning actress Cloris Leachman visiting the restaurant. 

“She was just really a lot of fun and she really felt comfortable here to the point that she would come in her robe sometimes,” Roberts recalled. “One time she came in and she took somebody’s french fry out of the window.”

What’s been the hold-up

The 2025 Palisades Fire and a subsequent mudslide added to the delays, according to current Froggy’s manager Sabrina P., who preferred not to use her last name for privacy reasons.

Sabrina started off as a server more than 20 years ago and is actively helping Roberts gather support for the reopening of the restaurant including surveying locals in Topanga and other tasks. She pointed out that parking is also a big issue in the restaurant’s reopening struggles.

“Essentially you’re not allowed to have designated parking in the Caltrans right of way,” Sabrina said. 

Roberts noted that the parking issue was one that had never come up in 25 years. And during that time frame he has renewed his permit to serve alcohol twice.

Because the proposed parking setup would require customers to park in a lower lot and walk up a stairway to the restaurant, it could create an Americans with Disabilities Act compliance issue. Froggy’s proposed solution is using a London Taxi to transport customers from the lower lot back up the hill in order to remain ADA compliant.

Topanga residents have shown their continued support throughout the delayed re-opening through Froggy’s GoFundMe campaign, which was created to help with ongoing costs and repairs. “To start a restaurant you need six months of operating funds which we just don’t have.” Sabrina said. 

Those operating costs include rent, payroll, food, beverages, taxes, insurance, marketing and utilities. 

Roberts said he hopes he’s able to get the funds to open in the way that Froggy’s needs to be opened. That includes having the funds to hire a full staff, and pay for needed equipment and restaurant supplies like food and drinks.