OUR STORY

Aug. 30, 2000 — Claudia Feldman

Bud and Karen Royer met on the phone. Karen dialed a wrong number, Bud answered, and he was so friendly, so funny, she didn't want to hang up. The next day, Bud called Karen to make sure he hadn't hallucinated that sweet, sexy voice. Soon they were daily phone buddies. She had an early morning music class at the University of Texas at Austin. That fall of 1972, he was her wake-up caller. After six weeks of phone talk, they had their first date. By the end of it, they were engaged.

Many Houstonians know the Royers, both near 50 now, as the couple who changed the Round Top Cafe in Round Top from a fading, chicken-fried-steak kind of place to a destination restaurant for diners from Houston, College Station and Austin. But making money from the restaurant, which their children now run, never was the Royers' ultimate goal. Instead, the cafe has become a launching pad, sometimes a backdrop, for other ventures. Bud, a marketer, has gone into the mail-order pie business, an enterprise he shares with disabled friends at Camp For All in nearby Burton.

He also helps Karen in her new career as a psychologist and creativity expert. She helps mid-career baby boomers move from dead center, and she also helps employers find the employees of their dreams -- or at least those who will fit well into their organizations.

It's all about leaving a legacy, making a difference, helping others help themselves, Karen says. It's also about making changes, taking risks, daring to make mistakes, she says. For two people who grew up in the Hill Country and make Round Top their home, theirs is a quintessential Houston story...for the entire story.