Elisa Paternina Johnson, 57, can’t return to her Altadena home yet. But she sure can shop at her favorite grocery store. So despite having to drive in from a rental one city away, Johnson was among the first to roll past the cleaned, scrubbed and full aisles of the Grocery Outlet on Lake Avenue on Tuesday.

“This is so special, this first day,” she said, as she hugged manager Victor Muñoz hello. “This could be gone but it’s here.”

Johnson’s home two miles away from the grocery store is still standing, but most of her neighbors’ homes are not. In the six weeks since the fire erupted on Jan. 7, Johnson has lived in Glendale and with family in Pasadena. She expects to return for good in seven months.

“I love it here, I would go every day and walk around because there is always something new,” Johnson said of the store.

Muñoz said he’s missed seeing regular customers like Johnson, and their conversations every time she came in. Today, he also helped her find a brand of chicken broth she likes.

“At Sprouts you get it for $8, here it’s only $5,” Johnson said. Today’s haul included mini cans of Sprite, a case of coconut water, and some lentils. She eyed the eggs ($6.99 a dozen) and decided she doesn’t need any this trip.

“When you know the people in any place in your neighborhood, you love them, and they’re so helpful to me,” Johnson said. “I need this normalcy.”

Elizabeth Solorio, 30, of Pasadena, received a steady stream of “take cares” and “say hi to (owners) Jose and Sandra” from customers paying at the register.

“I’m happy and excited to be back,” Solorio said. “And to see everything coming back together, it gives everyone hope.”

Los Angeles County Supervisors Chair Kathryn Barger agreed the reopening is a big deal.

“Not only does Grocery Outlet bring fresh, affordable food back to the neighborhood, it’s a family-run business owned by members of this very community,” she said in a statement. “It’s proof of why we need to keep rebuilding, keep supporting one another, and most importantly, keep hope alive.”

Outside the store, signs of disaster are steps away. A red Easy-Up houses tables manned by American Red Cross volunteers and staff from the Army Corps of Engineers. The Billy Graham Ministries bus remains parked on one side of the lot.

Across the street, the rubble and of shops along this district remains: the ruined post office, Rhythms of the Village shop, O Happy Days café, a florist, a pizza joint and the still-shuttered Jack in the Box. To the north of the store, where the Army Corps have parked their mobile base, the blackened wreck of a preschool still sits. The Aldi that neighbors the Grocery Outlet on its south side remains closed.

“This little incremental step is so important,” said community activist René Amy, 64, on the grocery reopening. “It’s a different reality that’s more normal than anyplace in town.”

He said remembering what the store looked like right after the fire to coming in to see the store today, he’s happy it’s “back to being the community nexus it long has been.”

Since returning to her Pasadena home weeks ago, Betty Pearson, 72, has been driving to the Grocery Outlet in San Gabriel. She said she’s relieved this store is open again. As she loaded her reusable bags filled with chips, Gatorade, mayonnaise and yogurt, she said she appreciates saving in gas now that she doesn’t have to drive far for supplies.

“It means a lot they’re open again,” she said.