Habit Burger Helping Revitalize Lankershim-Vineland Strip Mall

officially opened its doors on Wednesday at the corner of Lankershim Boulevard and Vineland Avenue in North Hollywood.

The restaurant opening is part of a major renovation ongoing at the corner strip mall, which will also see a new CVS open this summer. The entire parking lot has also recently been repaved, and two of the shopping centers' longtime residents, George's Cleaners and the Coin Laundry laundromat, are in the middle of having their outer facades spruced up.

The CVS replaces the old Roger Dunn Golf Shop, which had been at the location for 31 years before into NoHo.

Patch dropped by Habit Burger around 3:30 p.m. to sample the goods and had a hard time finding a seat.

"So far we have gotten a good response today, the whole day. We were very busy. We weren't like a line out the door or anything, but we had consistent business," said Ramon Barraza, the general manager.

Around 40 people are now also employed at the new location, according to Barraza.

The store is well situated for street traffic, as it is located at what is likely North Hollywood's busiest intersection, where Lankershim, Vineland and Camarillo Street meet (sometimes referred to as the five points corner). And with the new CVS coming soon and a renovation of the whole strip mall's facade, Habit Burger should have a happy home there for years to come.

The shopping center looked very run down for many years until recently and was certainly due for a sprucing up. One customer munching on a burger said he used to rent the T.U. Studios space across the street for years and had never seen so many cars in the parking lot and the building looking so nice.

The CVS is scheduled to open late in the summer, CVS Pharmacy Spokesperson Mike DeAngelis told Patch back in March. Existing CVS stores in the neighborhood will not close when the new store opens, DeAngelis said.

NOTE: I'm not a food critic, but I do know a damn good burger when I taste one, and Habit Burger makes some damn good burgers. It had been a number of years since I had one. Compared to other franchises, the taste reminded me most of In-N-Out Burger, but it was a little less sloppy to eat, and the decor of the restaurant is several steps up.