After 64 years of serving customers from one location in Beverly Hills, Nate ’n Al, the famous deli and hangout of the stars, is finally expanding. The owners’ nickname for their new Thousand Oaks eatery: “the college fund.”

“We waited out of respect for our grandmother who passed away a couple of years ago at 96,” said David Mendelson, 41, who, with his brother, Mark, inherited the business founded by their grandfather.

“Grandma was afraid of growth,” Mendelson explained. “She requested that we not get too busy and spend lots of time with her in her final years.”

However, the brothers recently realized “that we have four kids with college educations ahead of them – so we might want to open another one,” Mendelson said.

They took an initial, smaller expansion step a year ago by licensing the restaurant’s name to a concessionaire who operates a deli kiosk at Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. A second licensing deal at Los Angeles International Airport is in the works.

However, the new restaurant at the Lakes at Thousand Oaks, a shopping center developed by Rick Caruso, is the first new full-service Nate ’n Al since their grandfather, Al Mendelson, and partner, Nate Reimer, opened the original in 1945.

It features the same menu, including its popular rye bread, pastrami and hot dogs. Visitors to the original deli have included writer Nora Ephron, who famously insisted that she would choose a Nate ’n Al hot dog as her last meal.