5 things to know about new Phil Smidt's Rose Room replica at Whiting

• Phil Smidt's was a Region icon for nearly a century. It was famed for its lake perch and frog legs, running ads with frog legs dancing like Rockettes.

• The landmark restaurant just off Indianapolis Boulevard, where Region residents rubbed shoulders with the occasional celebrity diner like the Hollywood star James Cagney, closed in 2007. But now people can rekindle old memories by visiting an 8x8 replica of Phil Smidt's famous Rose Room at the newly revamped Whiting-Robertsdale Historical Society Museum.

• The museum used the original Rose Room wallpaper, the waitress outfit, dishes, matches and glasses and have laid out the table with their famous perch, beets, coleslaw and kidney bean salad, museum director Gayle Kosalko said. Artist Kathy Tallman recreated the giant rose that was pa