The shell that used to be Lassens at The Lakes is about to become an Erewhon. The 600-square-foot corner at Thousand Oaks Boulevard and Los Feliz that has been Tastee Delite, Mr. G's, Mary's Coffee Shop, Zorba's, and Chef Burger is about to become the second brick-and-mortar La Poblana. If you already live here, those two sentences tell you more about where the neighborhood is heading than any median-price chart.
The openings landing this summer aren't a random batch. They cluster into two very different bets by two very different owners, and residents who read the shell instead of the sign can see the direction of the whole boulevard.
The Bet at The Lakes
Caruso's property at 2200 E. Thousand Oaks Boulevard is tilting hard toward wellness and specialty food. Erewhon is opening its first Ventura County store at 2150 E. Thousand Oaks Boulevard, taking the former Lassens Natural Food & Vitamins space, with a company representative telling What Now LA the site opens Summer 2026. Founded in 1968, Erewhon is a family-owned Certified B Corp and Certified Organic retailer with ten locations across Southern California, and the new store will bring the signature Tonic Bar for juices, smoothies, and specialty drinks along with prepared meals and produce.
That's a substitution, not an addition. Lassens sold organic groceries. Erewhon sells organic groceries plus a $19 smoothie. The shell stays health food. The price ceiling moves.
The other confirmed Lakes arrival tells the same story from a different angle. Sora Temaki Bar, part of the family-owned Savta Hospitality Group whose portfolio includes the Mediterranean-inspired Savta and the Italian restaurant Michelina, is opening its second location at The Lakes in Spring 2026. Sora's original rooftop site is at the Original Farmers Market in Los Angeles. Thousand Oaks is where the concept goes to prove it travels.
Read the two openings together and Caruso's thesis becomes clear: the property is being programmed as a daily-life anchor for the Civic Arts Plaza corridor, with an emphasis on organic, specialty, and experience-driven food. It fits the property's own long-stated ambition of being part of what Caruso calls a "thriving and vibrant downtown," an intent formalized when the City Council approved a residential building on part of the parking lot in November 2021.
The Bet at The Oaks
A mile north, at 350 W. Hillcrest Drive, a completely different strategy is playing out at the same time.
Stockdale Capital Partners bought the 1.3-million-square-foot mall from Macerich in December 2024 for $157 million. The Oaks was 47 years old at the acquisition, roughly 90% leased, and, in the words of the city's economic development manager to The Acorn, in clear need of revitalization. Interior refreshes with new paint, furniture, and digital directories are already done. Exterior work begins in 2026.
The tenant announcement that tells you where this is going came on April 16, 2026: Little Kitchen Academy, a Montessori-inspired cooking academy for children and teens ages three to eighteen, chose The Oaks for its next North American flagship, opening this summer. That's paired with programming Stockdale has been quietly building since taking over: the Little Oaks Kids Club meeting twice a month on Thursdays, a partnership with Conejo Recreation and Park District for fitness classes, an Acorns for Education grant program benefiting 15 local schools, and a weekly Farmers' Market on the property.
Stockdale is not chasing Erewhon money. It's chasing Saturday-morning-with-the-kids money.
Two Properties, Two Theses
| The Lakes at Thousand Oaks | The Oaks | |
|---|---|---|
| Owner | Caruso | Stockdale Capital Partners |
| Purchase / entitlement | Residential building approved Nov 2021 | Acquired Dec 2024 for $157M |
| Anchor summer 2026 opening | Erewhon (former Lassens) | Little Kitchen Academy flagship |
| Second bet | Sora Temaki Bar, Spring 2026 | Little Oaks Kids Club, Farmers' Market |
| Read on the tenant mix | Specialty grocery, LA-import dining | Family programming, experience retail |
The interesting question for anyone who lives in the corridor isn't which property wins. It's what happens to the boulevard between them once both bets are running at full capacity. The Lakes pulls date-night and Saturday-brunch spend toward the Civic Arts Plaza end. The Oaks pulls stroller-and-kids-camp spend toward the Hillcrest end. Everything in the middle either specializes or gets squeezed.
Which brings us to the corners that aren't owned by either landlord.
The Independent Corners
Three permits in city review right now show how independent operators are reading the same map.
At 1771 E. Thousand Oaks Boulevard, next to the 7-Eleven at Los Feliz Drive, the old Chef Burger building is being remodeled as the second brick-and-mortar location of La Poblana Mexican Grill, which already runs a location at 540 N. Moorpark Road plus food trailers next to Tarantula Hill Brewing Co. and in Ventura. Per Conejo Valley Guide, the 600-square-foot spot is getting a 140-square-foot restroom and equipment room added. This is a corner with an unusually long restaurant memory:
- 1966 to 1971: Tastee Delite
- Early 1970s: Mr. G's
- 1973: Mary's Coffee Shop
- Mid-1970s to about 1982: Zorba's Coffee Shop
- 1980s to early 2025: Chef Burger
Six decades of small, independent food service on one pad. La Poblana is a continuation, not a rupture, and it's a corrective to any suggestion that Thousand Oaks food identity is being written entirely by the big landlords.
A more strategic filing landed May 19: a Yard House proposal at The Collection at Janss, across the parking lot from Dave & Buster's and Nordstrom Rack. The plan demolishes an existing two-story office building and replaces it with a restaurant featuring outdoor dining, a beer garden, and updated parking. This would be Ventura County's second Yard House, the first having opened at The Collection at RiverPark in July 2013. On the same property, the city is reviewing a 1,025-square-foot Dutch Bros drive-through on a 0.9-acre pad at Hillcrest Drive and Conejo Boulevard, along with a future K9 Resorts Luxury Hotel proposed for the upper level.
One more to watch a little further out: Laidrey Coffee Roasters, whose Agoura Hills store opened last April at 5021 Kanan Road, has announced a fourth location in Thousand Oaks. Timing is likely late 2026 or early 2027.
How Your Week Actually Changes
Strip the corporate branding away and ask a resident's question: what does a normal Saturday look like once all of this is running?
Groceries pivot to Erewhon at The Lakes or stay at the existing anchors. Kids' cooking camp or Little Oaks Kids Club at The Oaks fills the mid-morning slot that used to require a drive to Westlake. Lunch is temaki at Sora, or tacos at the reopened La Poblana corner, or the eventual Yard House patio at Janss. Coffee, when Laidrey lands, joins the existing lineup on Kanan.
Every one of those choices is a short trip within Thousand Oaks proper. That's the quiet through-line. The Lakes and The Oaks are competing for the same weekend, and the independents are filling the gaps that the two big centers can't or won't cover. For someone who already owns here, the net effect is fewer errands that require crossing city lines.
For someone thinking about the corridor from the outside, it's worth noticing how much of this pipeline is contracted and permitted rather than speculative. Erewhon's liquor license is filed. Little Kitchen Academy's flagship is announced. Sora's second location is dated. La Poblana's remodel is underway. Yard House and Dutch Bros are in city review as of this spring. That's a lot of ink on paper for one summer.
The Point
The generic version of this post is a list of restaurant openings. The version that matters if you live here is a map of two competing weekend engines and a handful of independent corners betting on the gaps between them. Whether that changes how you use the boulevard, or whether you just quietly enjoy the shorter drive to a matcha, depends on where in the neighborhood you already spend your Saturdays.
If your household is thinking about how these shifts read into what your property is worth, or into what a move within the corridor would actually feel like, that's a conversation worth having with someone who watches these permits land in real time. Happy SoCal Homes has been reading Thousand Oaks shell by shell for two decades. Schedule your free consultation and let's talk about what this summer's map means for your address specifically.
