Old Irv’s Burgers site repurposed into Conservatory cafe

The old Irv’s Burgers stand in West Hollywood, California, reopened this week as the cafe part of the Conservatory restaurant.

The Conservatory complex at 8289 Santa Monica Blvd. (aka Route 66) also contains a full sit-down restaurant and a Society Room bar. The cafe part takes the Irv’s Burgers streetside stand, puts on a new coat of paint, and serves coffee drinks and breakfast burritos.

Here’s a new photo of the Conservatory cafe, along with an old photo of Irv’s Burgers. Compare and contrast.

For more details, the Conservatory cafe’s menu is here.

As for Irv’s Burgers itself, it continues to operate down the street at 7998 Santa Monica Blvd. after moving there in 2014 in the wake of an eviction the previous year.

Some Route 66 fans will hold mixed emotions about the transformation of the old Irv’s. However, the Mother Road also holds a history of old restaurants and other businesses repurposed into something else — sometimes improving on what was there.

The Sonia Hong family, which immigrated from Korea, bought Irv’s in 2000. The city designated the restaurant as a cultural landmark in 2005, which kept a developer’s wrecking ball at bay at least once.

Irv’s originally was a Queen’s Burgers stand. George Motz, host of the Travel Channel’s “Burger Land,” has cited Irv’s as having one of the best burgers in the country.

Irv’s Burgers long has been known for celebrity-spotting, as it sits a short distance from several movie studios.

(Images of the cafe at Conservatory by Ryan Tanaka via The Conservatory; image of old Irv’s Burgers site in 2005 by Karen via Flickr)

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