The Heights

The Heights is fun. Also, it's now a stone's throw away from Marshall's, Best Buy, Target, Lane Bryant, and other things that were formerly foreign to Columbia Heights. The Heights is owned by the same peeps as Merkado (never been), Logan Tavern (never been), and Grillfish (been--good but uneventful, a long time ago).

Enough small talk...

I had a burger, and it was large and VERY filling. They reasonably allowed me to substitute any of the side dishes for the french fries--I mean, if you aren't at Beck, what's the point of wasting calories on fries?

Be my shrink for a sec--I have to tell you something. I was disappointed with the roasted butternut squash. Let me tell you what I was expecting, okay? Somewhere in my weird fantastical notions about butternut squash I thought that alongside my burger I'd find large wedge-like slices that were soft (but not mushy), sweet (but not too sweet) and creamy (um...that's all, yep, creamy). Instead I got a small bowl (what?!) of squash diced up to the same size as the tiny tomatoes on my salad. The soft/firm-ness was inconsistent, and despite the appearance of some onion and spices, the flavor didn't wow me. Bland. And it bothers me, because, it's like, my MOM can make some pretty sweet squash quickly in the microwave with some cinnamon and general mom-like pizzazz, so what's with that, Heights?

Now on to the BEST PART OF MY MEAL! No, I didn't have dessert. I purposefully skipped the part about my great salad. I asked our friendly (and patient) server to rank the salads according to his personal preference, and promptly chose his 2nd favorite for my starter. Repeat these words over and over, until you get to The Heights. Grilled. Romaine. Salad.

They take the heart of romaine lettuce (it's all connected, so it's a bunch), and throw it on the grill for what is probably a VERY short period of time, put it on a plate with blue cheese, and finely diced tomatoes and olives that must have been marinating in the AWESOME vinaigrette. I don't even like tomatoes, and I was scraping every bit of the topping off my plate and into the endless receptacle that is my mouth.

I'll be back at The Heights soon, where I will probably make my date buy me one of the delicious-sounding entrees. If you've been paying attention, you probably noticed that I love nut-crusted fish, so the pecan-crusted trout is natural. The salmon special sounded good but there was a lot going on--why did it need to have a lobster cream sauce? How many fish/seafood items really need to be in one dish? Also, I bet if we go, J will have the lamb. Mark my words!

The Heights
3115 14th Street NW
Metro: Green Line to Columbia Heights