A First Look at The Heights

Karin Powell Porter is not new to the Dallas restaurant scene. Porter has spent time behind the pass at The Grape and runs her own catering company, Porter House Provisions. This is the first time she's taken charge of her own restaurant kitchen, though, and The Heights is shaping up to be a fine neighborhood spot.

Porter, who is prolific on social media, has been teasing the coming restaurant for months with photos of an empty shell, partial build-outs and tentative menu items. Over the past few weeks she's held a number of soft opening events, and assumed her normal operating schedule earlier this week.

If you're up early, Porter and her staff are, too. Breakfast starts at 7 a.m. and continues till just before noon when lunch service begins. The menu offers dressed-up classics including scrambled eggs and bacon, and sweet rolls with a smear of cinnamon and Nutella. At lunch a niçiose gets some extra life with a tuna salad cooked down from fresh ahi. Steamed green beans are replaced with a pickled version, and arugula, oven-roasted tomatoes, potatoes, olives and a boiled egg finish out the plate.

Porter opened in the former Legal Grounds space in Lakewood. She built a massive bar that runs down the side of the narrow space and ends in an open kitchen. A grill faces the dining room instead of the back of the kitchen, and the occasional flash of orange flames lights up the view when an order is fired.

The pyrotechnics are no doubt easier to see in the evening, when the menu changes again. Burgers, pot roast cut from short ribs, steak frites and other approachable plates wait to send diners off into the late evening. That's when The Heights will operate as a bar. Her restaurant fills a void in the neighborhood, and watching it over the coming weeks and months will be fun.

The Heights, 2015 Abrams Road, 214-824-5800, theheightslakewood.com