Olive’s, the Soho stalwart coming to 443 Greenwich at Hubert, is aiming for a soft open around May 27. Get psyched. They are waiting on some duct work and a sign off from Landmarks, but otherwise things are looking sharp.

Toni Allocca started Olive’s 33 years ago; her husband, Nick Hartman, met her there and they are now also business partners. Of course lots more when they open, but in the meantime, expect homemade prepared foods, coffee flights, beer flights (there are 12 taps) and their homemade beverages: lemon soda, iced tea and lemonade. They also had a location at Hudson Eats, which they closed in order to open this one. Daily Provisions is in that space now.

Here’s the Q&A I ran in October, after a chat with Nick:

How did you two start Olive’s?
My wife started Olive’s — I met Toni as a customer. She started it in 1992 and we met shortly after that. She knew my order. Finally one time she brought a cookie out and said we should do something. After five dates we knew.

What were you doing at the time?
I was in action sports. I was a partner in a skate shop — we had a Blades franchise then added snowboards and skateboards. Then I started a company that manufactured urethane wheels. When we got together, I sold that and moved on to food industry.

What makes Olive’s so popular?
I’m a big believer in skin in the game. If it’s not good enough for my wife and I, it’s not good enough for our customers. We make everything fresh every day — the menu is different every day. Our soup guy comes in at 3 in the morning to make the two soups of the day. We make our salad dressing from scratch, every day. We cure our own vanilla in aged rum. But of course we get our bread from Grandaisy. [The offerings one day last week included grilled flank steak with grilled onions and watercress; the side was roasted beats with orange sections.]

Why did you leave Brookfield?
We did our 10 years at Brookfield when a lot of folks [other restaurants at Hudson Eats] didn’t make it. But we walked by this space and we said, why are we in a mall? This building has the coffee roasters sign on top, and the view of the river. This is much more us.

Can I take a picture of the plans?
Not yet! I do everything myself, and while I do drawings, I won’t build anything permanent unless I mock it up. All plans look good on paper, but you have to try it to know if it works. This will be a lot like the Olive’s in Soho, but the big difference here is the seating.

Why coffee flights?
There’s an entire coffee experience that’s not out there yet. All of the New York City coffee experience is on a 80-84 rating level. And because of that everyone is marketing against each other. It’s all still better than the coffee that we grew up on. But there are coffees in the 90+ rating level that are too expensive to brew in mass. But if I give you nine different tastings, you can see what you like and don’t like, and you can taste the difference.

Coffee is the drug of New York mornings. We believe coffee is on a much higher level that has to be introduced in a different way. Listen, I can talk to you about coffee till I’m blue in the face if you want… [I did not want, but no doubt others will!]

And we are doing the same thing with beer. The idea is, what if you don’t know what you want from a beer? And how do you learn? That’s why we are doing flight systems — you will be able to have a conversation with the staff. The 12 taps will rotate seasonally. One line will be always dedicated to Other Half Brewing Company, out of Brooklyn. That will be a permanent tap line.

Are you going to keep expanding?
No, we don’t want to get bigger. When you know the fabric of your product, you do this out of the love of what you do. And you can make a living. You won’t make a heap of money — the rents are through the roof, the number of departments that monitor restaurants are through the roof, the fines are through the roof. If you are not passionate, it’s not worth it. We always say to each other, when do we want to stop doing this? and we say, when we don’t love cooking and coming in every day.

Did you really paint that fire hydrant?
Yes, and the street sign poles. I stripped down the steel on the hydrant and matched the city color scheme. I did it all myself. This is my corner. I am going to spend more time here than any place else for the next decade.