Most of the new restaurants coming to Harker Heights are going into buildings that already held restaurants. 85°C Bakery Cafe and Potbelly are splitting the old Genghis Grill suite at Market Heights. Tia Juanita's Fish Camp is taking over the building that housed Gambit Social House on Knights Way. Taqueria Vallarta is serving tacos where Joe's Italian Restaurant used to be on Verna Lee Boulevard.
That puts the next round of new places to eat at addresses you already know. The new construction is happening farther out along Knights Way and FM 2410, and most of it so far is a coffee shop, a car wash, an auto shop and lease space with no named tenants.
Here's what's changing and where.
| Address | Previous tenant | New tenant |
|---|---|---|
| 201 E. Central Texas Expressway, Market Heights | Genghis Grill | Potbelly and 85°C Bakery Cafe |
| 1405 E. Knights Way | Gambit Social House | Tia Juanita's Fish Camp |
| 2330 Verna Lee Blvd. | Joe's Italian Restaurant | Taqueria Vallarta |
| 620 Knights Way | None, new building | Chicken Salad Chick plus two lease spaces |
One Old Suite Split Into Two Restaurants at Market Heights
Genghis Grill, the Mongolian stir-fry restaurant at Market Heights, closed in 2024. Its space is now being used for two restaurants. Houston Johnson, assistant to the city manager in Harker Heights, wrote in an email quoted by the Killeen Daily Herald that the old suite was split in two: Potbelly gets Suite 1300 and 85°C Bakery Cafe gets Suite 1304.
The bakery's half is a significant project. A Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation filing lists an $850,000 renovation and finish-out of 2,900 square feet inside the existing shell building.
The two brands are very different:
- 85°C Bakery Cafe opened its first U.S. location in 2008 and now has more than 1,000 locations worldwide. It sells breads, cakes, cookies, coffee and tea, plus savory items made with meat and pork.
- Potbelly Sandwich Shop dates to 1977 and has more than 400 U.S. locations. It serves Chicago-style sandwiches, soups, salads, cookies baked in-store and hand-scooped milkshakes.
When the news came out, commenters on a Facebook post quoted in the Herald's coverage said they usually stopped at 85°C's Austin locations. Once the Market Heights location is serving, that drive gets a lot shorter.
The Gambit Building Already Has a Commercial Kitchen
Market Heights is a former restaurant space getting new tenants. The building at 1405 E. Knights Way is a former entertainment venue whose kitchen and bars are still inside.
The 13,400-square-foot building was first permitted as the New Gambit Social and Escapology Building, a privately funded project with an estimated construction cost of $1.5 million. Gambit Social House had a restaurant and bar along with escape rooms, axe throwing, darts, cornhole and board games. The building sat empty after Gambit closed. When it went up for sale this year, the listing described walk-in coolers, a full commercial kitchen line and bar areas already in place.
The new tenant is Tia Juanita's Fish Camp, a Texas chain that mixes Mexican and Cajun food, which it calls MexiCajun. Anyone driving Knights Way has probably noticed the building's new seafoam-green paint with red trim. The Herald's Oct. 5 Business Spotlight counted 14 Texas locations on the company's website, including one in Waco at 4671 S. Jack Kultgen Expressway. Until now, the Waco location was the closest one for anyone in Harker Heights.
On Verna Lee, the Former Joe's Italian Is Already Serving
Taqueria Vallarta is the one restaurant in this group that's already open. It opened at 2330 Verna Lee Blvd., the former Joe's Italian Restaurant, and held a Harker Heights Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting about two weeks later.
At the ribbon cutting, employee Elena Deloya told the Killeen Daily Herald that the restaurant's hours and Mexican menu meant local customers wouldn't have to drive to Killeen or Temple for that kind of meal. She described the staff as family:
"We like to take care of people."
Taqueria Vallarta shows the same pattern as the other two sites. Each of these three restaurants took over an existing building rather than starting from bare dirt.
The New Construction Is on Knights Way
Knights Way and FM 2410 are where Harker Heights is putting up new buildings. The Killeen Daily Herald tracked six commercial projects along the corridor with about $9.4 million in estimated construction value, on schedules running from 2024 into 2028. The paper said the work extends commercial growth beyond the established retail cluster near Interstate 14.
Here are the six projects, with the ones already operating first:
- Black Rock Coffee Bar, about $1.1 million. State records filed the 1,627-square-foot coffee shop at 601 Knights Way. The open location is listed at 645 Knights Way.
- Mighty Wash #30, $1.2 million. A 4,432-square-foot car wash near Wampum Drive and Knights Way, now operating.
- Mayo Autoworks 3, $1.6 million. An 8,374-square-foot auto shop at 901 Mountain Lion Circle, now operating.
- FM 2410 Retail Center, $1.2 million. A 6,000-square-foot retail or convenience-store building at 1500 E. Knights Way.
- Chicken Salad Chick and two adjoining lease spaces, $1.8 million. A 6,070-square-foot building at 620 Knights Way.
- Love My Liquor, $2.5 million, the largest of the six. A 12,417-square-foot commercial lease building on FM 2410, with construction scheduled from July 31, 2026, through Jan. 1, 2028.
Chicken Salad Chick is the only one of the six that's a restaurant. The other projects are for coffee, car care, retail and lease space.
Chicken Salad Chick Is the One Restaurant Starting From Scratch
On the corridor, 620 Knights Way is the site to watch. When the Herald visited the site, the wood framing and exterior sheathing were up, but window and door openings were still exposed and orange safety fencing surrounded the lot. The restaurant will take 2,830 square feet of the building, and construction started March 2. The state filing's TDLR project record estimates completion on Dec. 18, 2026.
That date is when construction is expected to finish. The Herald noted that inspections, equipment installation and staff training usually come after construction wraps and before a restaurant starts serving customers. When Chicken Salad Chick does open, the menu will be chicken salad varieties, sandwiches, soups, sides and catering.
The two lease spaces next door don't have tenants named in the filings yet. The same goes for Love My Liquor's 12,417-square-foot lease building, which has construction scheduled into 2028. Between those two projects, the corridor's newest buildings will have room for businesses nobody has named yet.
What You Can Try Now and What's Coming
Here's the practical version for this winter:
- Open now: Taqueria Vallarta on Verna Lee, Black Rock Coffee Bar at 645 Knights Way, Mighty Wash near Wampum Drive and Mayo Autoworks on Mountain Lion Circle.
- Moving into existing buildings: Potbelly and 85°C Bakery Cafe in the old Genghis Grill space at Market Heights, and Tia Juanita's Fish Camp in the seafoam-green former Gambit building at 1405 E. Knights Way.
- Still under construction: Chicken Salad Chick at 620 Knights Way, with construction expected to finish Dec. 18. The FM 2410 Retail Center at 1500 E. Knights Way and Love My Liquor's lease building, scheduled into 2028, are also on the corridor.
The Gambit building, the Genghis Grill suite and the former Joe's Italian all got new restaurant tenants. Most of the brand-new buildings on Knights Way are coffee, car care and lease space.
If you're curious what the changes along Knights Way and around Market Heights mean for the homes nearby, Bradley Sheppard knows these streets well and is happy to talk through what's being built near you. Get in touch anytime.
