Highlands is not the kind of mountain town that settles, and Primary Restaurant is not the kind of place that asks it to.
Opened in 2022 in the former Tug’s space on the Plateau, Primary reads the room before you’ve even sat down: rich blues and charcoal grays run the walls; tobacco leather banquettes anchor the dining room while deep blue velvet does the same on the lounge side; the lighting is dramatic throughout, in the way that good restaurant lighting always is, which is to say it makes everyone look like they are having the best possible evening.
Curtis Higgins, who has been cooking professionally for nearly four decades and who arrived in Highlands by way of Crested Butte and Dallas and a handful of Florida private clubs, had imagined at first something broadly accessible – the kind of easy, well-executed American cooking that Houston’s built a minor empire on, with lunch service and a dinner menu that covered the expected ground.
But Highlands, it turned out, wanted more, or at least wanted differently, and Higgins, who has opinions about sourcing and uses only salt and cracked black pepper because he believes, with a convert’s certainty, that the product should speak for itself, was more than willing to oblige.
What he serves now is a menu of pleasing discipline: USDA Prime beef and above, seafood preparations that feel genuinely considered rather than obligatory, and a burger that regulars cannot bring themselves to abandon no matter how many times the steaks make the better argument. The steaks have the last word. The Wagyu Denver – the zabuton, named for the Japanese floor cushion its tenderness is said to evoke – is the crown jewel, bovine and fleeting, yielding under a knife in a way that makes you briefly reconsider everything you thought you knew about beef. Only two come from each animal; it appears on the menu when it can and disappears before long. The prime filet, served with smashed red potatoes and asparagus, is the menu’s surest pleasure – butter-soft and clean-flavored, the kind of steak that makes an unambiguous case for simplicity over showmanship. And then there is the country-fried beef tenderloin, which arrives as either a surprise or a revelation depending on your disposition: filet tips pounded thin, buttermilk-dredged, fried to a shattering gold, and finished with sausage cream gravy that is unambiguous about its intentions. It’s the kind of dish that becomes the thing your table talks about.
Seafood is where Higgins allows himself a different kind of creativity. The Chilean sea bass arrives pan-seared, the crust giving way to something almost custard-like within, plated with a risotto primavera that earns its place rather than merely filling it. The North Carolina trout, cornmeal-crusted and pan-seared, comes with polenta cakes and roasted corn — a Southeastern showstopper rendered with real care.
Brunch on weekends brings prime rib hash – diced, sautéed, crowned with a fried egg – alongside chicken and waffles and a classic eggs Benedict that suggests Higgins considers the hollandaise a matter of personal honor. Dessert is unapologetic: carrot cake, brownie à la mode, the kind of thing that isn’t trying to surprise you but does anyway.
The bar pours seasonal cocktails and serious bourbon, and the wine list includes a private-label cabernet, a 2018 estate vintage from Anderson’s Conn Valley whose grapes Higgins selected himself by walking the vineyard – which is either an extraordinary level of commitment or the best possible story to tell at dinner, or, most likely, both.
Like many restaurants that opened in the shadow of Covid, the road hasn’t been without obstacles – staffing shortages and a difficult stretch following last year’s hurricane among them.
But Primary has found its rhythm. The dining room is busy, the kitchen is dialed in, and Higgins has quietly built exactly the kind of restaurant Highlands didn’t know it was waiting for.
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