It’s been three months since Eddie Cerino shuttered his casual Italian restaurant in Lakewood to better focus on his suburban eateries in Seven Hills and Parma.

During that time, there have been rumors about a particular local burger chain possibly stepping in and taking over.

They are rumors no longer.

“We got the keys,” says Elie Chamoun, founder of the popular Burgers 2 Beer concept.

The Lakewood shop (14725 Detroit Ave.) will join the original location in Highland Heights, a shop in Solon, and an “Express” version in the Campus District. If all goes as Chamoun hopes, the new restaurant will open in late August.

As for interior modifications, Chamoun says, “We’ll do some renovations; make the interior look the way we want it to look.”

To do that he’ll remove the small pizza and baking station near the front entrance, expand the bar, and reconfigure the dining rooms. The kitchen will be retrofitted to focus more on char-grilled burgers and less on pasta and pizza. When all is said and done, the interior will feature the signature red and grey walls, black ceiling, and corrugated aluminum steel finishes.

At the bar, six taps will be beefed up to 24 taps of craft draft, which will join another 100 or so in bottles.

Diners can look forward to the same lineup of bar snacks, salads, burgers, hot dogs, wraps and sandwiches served at the other locations. The burgers, which consistently win high praise, are fresh, grass-fed Ohio beef, char-grilled over an open flame and topped with almost anything imaginable. The Luther is a half-pound burger topped with bacon and cheese and served between a sliced glazed donut. Other burgers arrive between two grilled cheese sandwiches, topped with corned beef hash and eggs, or slathered with gooey peanut butter.

Lakewood is not the last gambit for Chamoun as new outposts are planned for Akron, Concord, Strongsville and Detroit.