The Habit Burger wants to come to the Whitmore Plaza Shopping Center in Ceres and has an application on Monday’s Ceres Planning Commission agenda.
Angel Speed 3 LP will be seeking approval for a conditional use permit to build a 3,114-square-foot restaurant with a 658-square-foot patio dining area.
The building plans to occupy a vacant pad directly north of Bob’s Coffee Shop and farthest west of the Taco Bell on Whitmore Avenue.
The Habit Burger is a national burger chain that opened in recent years in Modesto and Turlock.
The prospective building site has a commercial zoning designation of Community Commercial (CC) which requires approval of a CUP for the review of the architectural design of the building and operation layout.
The applicants approached the city in July about bringing Habit Burger to Ceres. City staff expressed concerns that the drive-thru wasn’t designed to prevent the queue of vehicles from spilling onto the existing aisle areas of the shopping center. The applicant’s design team reconfigured a plan to accommodate the expected number of customers with minimal impact to the site. The city planning staff has signed onto it.
The Habit Burger Grill is a fast-casual restaurant concept that specializes in preparing fresh, made-to-order chargrilled burgers and handcrafted sandwiches featuring tri-tip steak, grilled chicken and sushi-grade ahi tuna cooked over an open flame. In addition, it features fresh made-to-order salads and a selection of sides, shakes and malts.
The Habit Burger Grill was named the “best tasting burger in America” in July 2014 in a comprehensive survey conducted by one of America’s leading consumer magazines. The first Habit Burger Grill opened in Santa Barbara in 1969 and was recently named in Thrillist’s list of “Underrated Burger Chains that Need to be in Every State!”
The Habit Burger Grill has since grown to over 275 restaurants in 13 states throughout Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia and Washington as well as seven international locations.
