Lake Highlands is first and foremost a residential neighborhood. What passersby saw taking place from Walnut Hill, Audelia and Northwest Highway wasn\u2019t happening in a vacuum \u2013 the rebirth was a product of the growth taking place on quiet neighborhood streets like Ferndale, Whitehurst and Church.<\/p>\n
The secret got out as the market thawed in the mid-2010s. Lake Highlands, touting Richardson ISD schools and a small-town feel in a big city, became a target destination for young families looking for a safe yet still affordable neighborhood. <\/p>\n
And as demand rose, so did home values. In 2010, the average home value in ZIP code 75231 was $105,976. By 2020, that sticker price more than doubled to $214,826, according to a report by the Dallas Business Journal.<\/p>\n
\u201cLake Highlands was really built for families in many ways; the schools are kind of tucked into the neighborhoods, and there\u2019s parks,\u201d says Kathy Stewart, District 10 council member. \u201cIt\u2019s just geared for families.\u201d<\/p>\n
Developers and neighborhood leaders looked to build additional housing as the decade progressed in response to the frenzy. Nearly half of Lake Highlands Plaza was transformed into a single-family development beginning in 2011. On Skillman Street, residential growth stimulated mixed-use development as the Lake Highlands Town Center finally got off the ground with the opening of the Haven and The Lookout in 2014 and 2018, respectively.<\/p>\n
In 2017, SHOP Companies bought and began substantially renovating Lakeridge Center, which had grown more attractive with the downsizing of Lake Highlands Plaza. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat (CPC Commissioner Tipton Housewright) did was shrink the retail on the southwest corner, which I think that\u2019s what Bill Blaydes was going for, because then that opened up the opportunity for the southeast corner to be a bigger, more successful retail center,\u201d Stewart says.<\/p>\n
The pieces were in place. Residential growth had led commercial real estate to become attractive in Lake Highlands again. In newly refreshed Lake Highlands Plaza, locally-owned concepts like Resident Taqueria and Cedar & Vine, which opened amid the real estate boom, were flourishing in response to the neighborhood\u2019s evolving demographics and taste.<\/p>\n
Riding a wave of momentum<\/p>\n
The 2010s showed Lake Highlands could support an independent and robust dining scene. The 2020s, so far, have shown the neighborhood is ready for more.<\/p>\n
Vector Brewing owner Craig Bradley says the redevelopment of Lakeridge Village, along with the tide of change ushered in by Andrew Savoie\u2019s opening of Resident Taqueria and the need for a neighborhood watering hole, led him to open Vector Brewing with his wife Veronica.<\/p>\n
He, like many Lake Highlands residents, wants to see more of the same in coming years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would love to see more of what we\u2019re trending on. I think there needs to be a lot more locations that are focusing on quality and focusing on uniqueness, focusing on things that bring the best about the dining scene.\u201d<\/p>\n
For a relatively newer yet growingly robust dining scene where concepts often open within a mile or less of each other, there\u2019s a surprising lack of competitiveness among restaurant owners in Lake Highlands. They each fill different niches. They each market themselves to different price points.<\/p>\n
And yet, they have the same goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think a rising tide lifts all ships in Lake Highlands,\u201d Bradley says. \u201c(We\u2019re) giving people options. No one has to be the one place that everyone goes. I love sending business to all of our neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the opening of one such neighbor, Goldie\u2019s, in 2024, residents gained yet another spot for candlelit, sit-down dinners accompanied by imported Bordeaux \u2014 a thought that would have stretched belief barely 10 years before. That kind of polished experience has historically required Lake Highlands neighbors to drive to Lakewood or Preston Hollow.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have to drive Downtown, we can just have a good meal right in our neighborhood,\u201d Clayton says.<\/p>\n
\u201c(I\u2019d like) some more eclectic choices,\u201d Perry says. \u201cI\u2019d like to see a little more contrast, selection. But I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n
To grow or not to grow?<\/p>\n
The success of both Goldie\u2019s and Cedar & Vine demonstrated a clear market for curated cocktail programs and elevated date night fare in Lake Highlands. And while some may clamor for additional higher-end or even fine dining concepts, others aren\u2019t so sure it\u2019s a direction Lake Highlands can sustain.<\/p>\n
Goodwins chef-owner Jeff Bekavac has lived in Lake Highlands since 2010. For him, while the neighborhood has shown an appetite for concepts like Goldie\u2019s, Lake Highlands is still Lake Highlands.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople want nicer places all the time,\u201d Bekavac says. \u201cIt\u2019s hard if you\u2019re running around a bunch early in the week (with kids) and you don\u2019t have time to go sit down and do a two-hour meal. It\u2019s hard to open those places, and it\u2019s hard to support those places sometimes. But I think that there\u2019s a lot of people in Lake Highlands that want more, and I think they want more of everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
For all the talk of growth, the fundamental blueprint of the neighborhood remains mostly unchanged from the time the L Streets were developed and Northlake Center first opened in the late \u201950s and early \u201960s. It\u2019s still the same sprawling, suburban-esque area made up of a patchwork of subdivisions built around Richardson ISD schools. Lunch and grocery trips remain centered around a collection of relatively small, decidedly automobile-forward shopping centers.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not Lower Greenville, it\u2019s not Deep Ellum, it\u2019s not Uptown \u2014 and won\u2019t be for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s part of the reason why Resident Taqueria\u2019s Andrew Savoie isn\u2019t so sure further growth is or should be a continuing theme of the dining scene in Lake Highlands.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not a street where you can walk down to and shop through different stores. And we\u2019re all driving,\u201d he says. \u201cThe future of Lake Highlands is what we see now, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n
The idea that room for development in Lake Highlands, both commercial and residential, is scarce is not a new one. It\u2019s certainly not a surprise to anyone who\u2019s taken a look at the last few years\u2019 Richardson ISD demographic reports, which cite a lack of room for new single or multifamily development, compounded by a decline in birthrates seen nationwide, as a leading factor fueling the district\u2019s declining enrollment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re super limited in space,\u201d Savoie says. \u201cSo really, it\u2019s about supporting the businesses that are here right now. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s about more. I don\u2019t think that we need more \u2026 We don\u2019t want to oversaturate this market, because then it doesn\u2019t make much sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another factor which will play a large part in shaping the future of dining in Lake Highlands is an omnipresent issue throughout the city: rent prices. Proprietors\u2019 preference for oversized floor plans, rising real estate prices, outside investment, and competition from financially well-backed restaurant groups have driven longtime concepts from many corners of the city.<\/p>\n
In May, Midway Hollow institution Fernando\u2019s Mexican Cuisine closed after being unable to reach a rent agreement. Suze, also in the same shopping center as Fernando\u2019s, threw in the towel in June after 24 years as chef-owner Gilbert Garza told The Dallas Morning News he was \u201chanding over the keys to one of Dallas\u2019s most talked about and exciting groups.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely don\u2019t want to see more chains coming in,\u201d Bradley says. \u201cNothing will kill this scene more than having rent going up, and then no one can afford rent other than large chains.\u201d<\/p>\n
Future<\/p>\n
What will the future look like for Lake Highlands\u2019 dining scene? Over 70 years after the development of the first subdivisions in the neighborhood, fast food chains maintain an oversized presence in Lake Highlands, and despite all the progress over the past two decades, the area still lags behind neighboring districts in its independent dining offering.<\/p>\n
However, neighbors have clearly demonstrated an appetite and appreciation for varied, chef-driven independent concepts. Chefs, so far, have also shown less apprehension toward taking risks in what is still widely viewed on the outside as a sleepier suburban neighborhood.<\/p>\n
In the end, a large part of the answer has and always will lie within what\u2019s happening in our residential neighborhoods and their relationship to development in Lake Highlands.<\/p>\n
Much like going out to eat in the area, residential real estate has gotten decently expensive in most of Lake Highlands and now caters to a different type of customer. From 2017 to 2024, the average home value in ZIP code 75238 rose from close to $370,000 to nearly $600,000 as million-dollar valuations became more and more common in neighborhoods like the L Streets and White Rock Valley.<\/p>\n
How long can Lake Highlands remain an attractive option for young families with average home values beginning to stretch well past the half-million dollar mark? How much housing can developers build to alleviate demand? Does mixed-use development have a large part to play? Will the neighborhood retain its \u201csmall town feel in a big city\u201d as the area begins to ascend in a direction decidedly upper-class? <\/p>\n
Similar questions face the neighborhood\u2019s dining scene. Can too much growth oversaturate the area and lead to a spree of shutterings? Where will new restaurants go? Can new arrivals and longtimers truly support more concepts? Will deep-pocketed hospitality groups rear their head anytime soon and skyrocket rent for homegrown concepts? <\/p>\n
Solutions for both, it seems, may lie in finding creative uses for real estate on the northern side of the neighborhood. A decent amount of subdivisions bounding Royal Lane still boast single-family properties for relatively affordable prices. And who\u2019s to say renovations or redevelopment near important Royal intersections at Skillman Street and Abrams Road couldn\u2019t attract locally-owned concepts as the SHOP renovation of Lakeridge Center did in the 2010s?<\/p>\n
Much like its past, the future of Lake Highlands\u2019 dining scene is likely tied as much, if not more, to home values and inventive mixed-use development as it is to inspired chefs and gourmand neighbors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is the final installment of a three-part series exploring the evolution of dining in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lake Highlands is first and foremost a residential neighborhood. What passersby saw taking place from Walnut Hill, Audelia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[160,162,161],"class_list":{"0":"post-19767","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-plano","8":"tag-plano","9":"tag-plano-headlines","10":"tag-plano-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}