Lake Highlands Advocate

07/25/2025

Filipino fare is always available at Marie’s Kitchen. The “American” food is mostly for workers in the Forest Green Building that houses the eatery. The sandwiches, most popular being the turkey club served with house-made chipotle mayo, are only available during the week when they close at 4:30 p.m. However, the restaurant is now open on Sundays, making it easier for their Instagram followers to experience Silog, Filipino lunch specials, and breakfast options like ube pancakes drizzled with purple sauce. ⁠
⁠
Silog, a typical Filipino breakfast plate of a protein like lechon kawali (fried pork belly) or tapa (steak), garlic fried rice and a fried egg, is Marie’s Kitchen's No. 1 seller. Daily specials have also become increasingly popular. Most of the new customers are also Filipino cuisine first-timers, Candy Marie Ramos says. The café is a true mom-and-pop, with owners Jay Gherson and Marie as the only full-time employees. ⁠
⁠
“We have to explain to them how to eat the food, and at first, they’re like, ‘Oh, rice for breakfast. Kind of odd.’ But it’s normal for us,” she says. “For some reason, a lot of people, mostly non-Filipino, eat silog now, and that’s what we want. We talked last time how we wanted it to become mainstream. So for some reason the Texan palette is accepting the silog.”⁠
⁠
https://lakehighlands.advocatemag.com/2025/06/30/maries-kitchen-has-achieved-silog-success/
⁠
📷️: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

07/25/2025

Update: Multiple Dallas residents have contacted us here at Advocate to let us know they, too, have been approached by individuals apparently posing as law enforcement officers.

The DPD says they've had multiple instances of scammers impersonating law enforcement officers. It was a warm Sunday morning like most others in June when Kinsey Dulaney pulled up to the red light at Northwest Highway and Jupiter Road. As she waited for the

07/24/2025

Bill Boyd, the Exchange Club of Lake Highlands' new president, says the club will look to expand its community service program in the coming year.

The Exchange Club of Lake Highlands will look to prioritize community service and member engagement under its new president. Bill Boyd, pictured front, joined by Torres on the right. Bill Boyd’s term officially began on July 1, although he

07/23/2025

“Many of the children who come to Dallas or families who come to Dallas as refugees are settled into the Vickery Meadow community by the resettlement agencies,” says Executive Director Shannon Hendricks. “And so in those three square miles, we have just numerous, numerous refugee children and immigrant families who have found their way to that community as well.”⁠
⁠
According to the 2022 census survey data, close to 48% of the population in ZIP code 75231 spoke languages other than English at home, and almost a third were born outside of the U.S.⁠
⁠
The core of Heart House’s mission may be English language education, but it also pursues a more holistic model in reaching its students. The organization incorporates breathing exercises, story times and other exercises designed to help children understand, label and process their emotions in most sessions. By processing their own emotions, Heart House incorporates social-emotional learning (SEL) to help the children learn empathy and healthy interactions.⁠
⁠
https://lakehighlands.advocatemag.com/2025/07/01/heart-house-vickery-meadow/
⁠
📷️: ⁠

07/23/2025

"Our focus is play-based learning, so you’re not going to see our students sitting at a table with a pencil and a worksheet. Research shows that kids from birth through age five should be actively engaged in an activity and building on that," says Kate Bear, director at Ascension Day School.

A boy plays in the open-air courtyard at Ascension Day School. Photo by Kate Bear. Parents, teachers and administrators at Ascension Day School are celebrating 15 years pouring love and learning into children on the campus of Episcopal Church of the Ascension.

07/22/2025

The addition has more than doubled Resident's seating capacity.

As the summer heat grows even more blistering, Resident Taqueria has opened up a timely expansion with added seating and a sit-down bar area. Andrew Savoie’s elevated taco concept hasn’t exactly struggled for foot traffic since opening in 2015. With an

07/22/2025

Unimarket Latin Foods, a Calgary-based Latin market, will open in the former Palm Beach Tan space near the intersection of Walnut Hill and Skillman this fall. About 30% of the floor space will be dedicated to shelves stocked with imported goods from Latin America, with a cafe and a large seating area occupying the remainder. The prepared food offering will include six varieties of empanadas and regional favorites like lomo saltado from Peru.

There’s a new Latin-style market complete with a food hall offering house-baked Chilean empanadas and imported Colombian coffee coming to Kingsley Square this fall. Renderings courtesy of Unimarket. Richard Ospina first opened Unimarket Latin Foods in Calgary in 2008. Since then,

07/21/2025

“I’ve got RISD running through my veins,” says Regina Harris, Richardson ISD Place 4 Trustee. She’s held every officer position on the school board and served on PTAs of every level. Harris also grew up in Hamilton Park, was a member of one of the first integrated graduating classes at Hamilton Park Elementary and graduated from Richardson High School. While moving up the corporate ladder at companies like at Coca-Cola and Pizza Hut, she raised her son, Brian, who also attended Hamilton Park. As he progressed through junior high and high school, Harris remained heavily involved, just as her mother had done for her. She has served as a PTA president at West Junior High and Richardson, and eventually joined the RISD Council of PTAs, where she served as vice president. ⁠
⁠
Despite her early involvement, she didn’t even know what the board of trustees was. “I was sitting in my car waiting for him to come out of band, and a good friend of mine came over to my car ... ‘You should run for board of trustees.’ And I was like, ‘What is that?’” ⁠
⁠
Her election to the board in 2019 occurred at a challenging time, marked by Superintendent Jeannie Stone's resignation in 2021 and ongoing deficit budgets. “I just kept thinking, ‘I’ve got to keep calm, and I’ve got to follow this script, and I’ve got to facilitate this meeting and facilitate it with pride, knowing that what we’re doing and the decisions that we’re making have been well thought through, and we are keeping our kids and our staff number one as these decisions are being made. And regardless of what these public commenters come up and say and thrash us, know that they don’t know the whole story.”⁠
⁠
Harris was recently sworn into a third term after running unopposed for the second consecutive election. ⁠
⁠
https://lakehighlands.advocatemag.com/2025/06/30/regina-harris-grew-up-around-educators/
⁠
📷️: ⁠

“I’ve got RISD running through my veins,” says Regina Harris, Richardson ISD Place 4 Trustee. She’s probably right, especially considering she’s held every officer position on the school board, sent her son to district schools and served on PTAs of every level. Harris also grew up

07/21/2025

The Lake House will donate 35% of all food sales from 4-10 p.m. today to the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund.

Lake House's pan seared chicken topped with grilled shrimp and served with broccoli, feta cheese and green salad. The Lake House will host a fundraiser Monday in memory of children and families lost in the Texas Hill Country floods. The bar and grill

07/21/2025

Each of the one-of-a-kind candles comes in a unique vintage vessel sourced by Emily May of Blass Bluebonnet Vintage, who collaborated with Lake Highlands neighbor Jaclyn King on the line.

A Lake Highlands neighbor recently released a limited-edition collaboration line of environmentally conscious candles in locally sourced, vintage vessels. Emily May, left, and Jaclyn King pose with their limited edition candles. Old Flame Candle Co. owner and Lake Highlands

07/18/2025

2021 Valedictorian Paxton Smith, known locally for her graduation speech that went viral. Recently, she graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, where she participated in the Longhorn Singers and Texas Horizons. While attending UT, she gigged around Austin and interned in Los Angeles for Merlin Studios, Campus Studios and Interstate Records. In May, Smith released the first song from her debut EP, entitled “But I Love It.” ⁠
⁠
“The whole EP is about my coming of age,” she says. “I would say it’s characterized by contradiction by all these technical thoughts, by finding that growing up is more confusing than when I was younger.”⁠
⁠
Nobody expected Lake Highlands High School’s 2021 commencement ceremony to draw nationwide attention, including Smith. She traded her speech that the district had approved for speaking out against the Texas “Heartbeat Bill,” which was signed into law, prohibiting most abortions after six weeks without exceptions for r**e and in**st. As she stepped away from the podium, district staff expressed their disapproval of her last-minute swap. The public’s response, however, was overwhelmingly positive. ⁠
⁠
As a result of the viral speech, Paxton joined the Women’s Reproductive Rights Assistance Project‘s board of directors. WRRAP is the largest nonprofit abortion fund in the U.S. and provides assistance to women seeking reproductive care across 50 states. Despite her continued advocacy, Smith says she doesn’t see a future in activism. Her mind is on music now.⁠
⁠
https://lakehighlands.advocatemag.com/2025/06/30/paxton-smith-is-focusing-on-the-music/

📷️: ⁠

07/17/2025

State Sen. Nathan Johnson, whose district encompasses the entirety of the Lake Highlands area, announced his run for Texas Attorney General.