American Fare Chain Restaurant to Replace Islands Fine Burgers and Drinks in Encino

A new restaurant that’s part of a chain expanding in Los Angeles is set to open in Ventura Boulevard’s Encino Commons in October or November.

The restaurant, which will serve American fare, will replace Islands Fine Burgers and Drinks, which was located on 15927 Ventura Blvd., and which closed in November 2011.

The restaurant’s name as well as its parent company is confidential at the moment, partly because the restaurant is in the midst of the permitting process with the City of Los Angeles, according to Jeff Gould, a broker for the Colliers International commercial real estate company in Encino told Encino-Tarzana Patch.

“It will be a quick-service restaurant serving a combination of prepared and made-on-site meals,” said Gould, who brokered the sale of the 7,500-square-foot property to its current owner last year.

Islands Fine Burgers and Drinks, a popular restaurant in Encino, had been open for about 20 years when it shut down amid a consolidation drive by the parent company, Gould said.

“This building was just too big for them at the end of the day,” said Gould, referring to the space on 15927 Ventura Blvd. “The typical Islands restaurant is 3,500 square feet to 4,000 square feet.”

The freestanding space, which the upcoming restaurant has leased, consists of a wood-frame stucco building that has a high ceiling and its own parking lot. Over the years, a number of restaurants have opened there and “survived quite a while,” Gould said.