Legal Grounds closed in 2015 and half of Lakewood acted like the world was ending. That was the coffeehouse at Abrams and Gaston where you could get a latte and free legal advice, a combination that made no sense anywhere but East Dallas. When word got out that a restaurant was going in, the neighbors did what neighbors do. They complained. Then The Heights opened, the pancakes survived the transition, and the complaining stopped almost overnight.
That was eleven years ago this month.
Cary Ray and Derek Welch own the place. Ray ran Daddy Jack’s Lobster and Chowder House on Lower Greenville back in the day, and Welch is better known around Dallas as Ricki Derek, the crooner who has been fronting big bands here for a couple of decades. The two of them also opened Scat Jazz Lounge in Fort Worth’s Sundance Square, which explains a lot about The Heights once you know it. The music is always right. The television behind the bar hides in a two-way mirror and only shows itself when there is a game worth watching. These are men who think about a room.
Their idea was simple, borrowed from Europe. A corner spot that pours coffee in the morning, cooks a real dinner at night, and shakes a cocktail after the show lets out. No concept, no theme, no branding exercise. Just a place.
Karin Porter runs the kitchen, and has since day one. She grew up in East Dallas, went to Bryan Adams, cooked at The Grape for eight years under Brian Luscher, and took her first executive chef job here. Her food tastes like it. The Heights burger comes with jalapeño-pimento cheese and whiskey-soaked onions, and I will let others argue about the best burger in Dallas, but this one gets brought up every time the subject does.
Her French onion soup has regulars who order nothing else. There is pot roast. There is a chicken pot pie with jalapeño-cheddar biscuits. There are steamed mussels and a thick-cut pork chop and steak frites, and none of it is trying to impress anyone, which is precisely why it does.
About those pancakes. Porter kept the toasted oatmeal granola pancakes from the Legal Grounds menu when she took over the space, adjusted them slightly, and probably saved herself a year of grief in the process. They are still the reason to come on a Saturday morning. The Lakewood migas, scrambled with chorizo, pico de gallo, and queso fresco, come with black beans and warm tortillas and make a strong second case.
The coffee is locally roasted and treated with the same care as the bar, where somebody will build you a proper Manhattan without making a production of it. Wines on tap. Texas beer. The kitchen runs later than most anything else in the neighborhood.
The Heights sits at 2015 Abrams Road. Dinner nightly from 5 to 9:30 p.m., breakfast and lunch on Fridays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and brunch Saturday and Sunday, also 8 to 2. Call 214-824-5800 or look over the menus at theheightslakewood.com.
Eleven years in Dallas is an eternity. Restaurants with bigger budgets and louder openings have come and gone twice over in that time. The Heights just keeps feeding Lakewood, morning and night, and Lakewood keeps showing up. Hard to argue with that.
