lazy days
Houston restaurant veteran fires up pizzas and steaks in Garden Oaks
Lazy Lane will serve pastas, small plates, and steaks.
An experienced Houston restaurateur is bringing a new concept to Garden Oaks. When it opens in November, Lazy Lane will be the newest project from Heights & Co. owner Brian Doke.
Located at 923 Wakefield Dr., Lazy Lane is described as a “casually elegant neighborhood” with a chef-driven menu built around steak and pizza. Open for lunch, dinner, and weekend brunch, the restaurant aims to serve its neighborhood as both a casual neighborhood restaurant and a more elevated options for date nights and special occasions.
“Lazy Lane is a casually elegant restaurant designed to feel both elevated and effortless,” Doke said in a statement. “We wanted to create a place that can be both your go-to neighborhood spot for weeknight dinners, yet refined enough to host life’s memorable occasions – and quite frankly, a place we’d love to go ourselves.”
The building’s design terrazzo floors, large windows, and a 25-foot marble bar top. It offers both indoor and outdoor dining with a private dining room that has access to a 35-seat veranda that’s separate from the patio.
Chef-partner Daniel Davidson brings experience from Michelin-starred restaurants on the West Coast as well as stints at local restaurants such as Houston steakhouse Doris Metropolitan and Dosey Doe in The Woodlands. His menu begins with starters such as oysters on the half shell, farro and brassica salad, steak tartare, and Spanish meatballs in a spicy tomato sauce.
Entree choices begin with four pizzas — margherita, pepperoni, baked potato, or lamb sausage and butternut squash — and four house made pastas, including garganelli with bolognese and burrata, a seafood pasta made with squid ink rigatoni, and a riff on carbonara made with smoked bucatini and speck. Dry-aged steaks, sourced from California’s Flannery Beef, are joined by lamb chops, a burger, and seafood entrees.
They’re paired with classic cocktails, including a freezer martini, margarita, mojito, and Manhattan, as well as wines from an in-house label.
If the formula sounds familiar for Doke, that may be because he was a co-founder of Heights restaurant Savoir, including through the opening of its speakeasy-style steakhouse Patton’s. He also briefly operated River Oaks-area Italian restaurant Dante’s River Oaks. Doke left Savoir in the fall of 2022.
“With thoughtfully sourced ingredients, hand-picked wines, craft cocktails and a warm, welcoming environment, Lazy Lane was built to make every visit, whether spontaneous or celebratory, feel exceptional,” said Doke. “We can’t wait to welcome you, Houston.”
