With the opening of his first restaurant in New York City, Queer Eye's food and wine guy Antoni Porowski says that he's never wanted to have a restaurant until recently.

According to The New York Times, Porowski and his partners, restaurateurs Lisle Richards and Eric Marx, will open their reimagined Village Den in the West Village on Monday.

“The cafe serves breakfast (avocado tartine, almond and walnut pancakes), salads (almond Caesar; grilled chicken with spinach, egg and green goddess dressing), bowls (honey-roasted turkey meatballs over cauliflower rice), and a long list of smoothie options,” the Times wrote.

Speaking with Eater, Porowski explained how he got involved with the project.

“We have this thing called 'work-out club,'” Porowski said. “There’s a group of seven or eight of us in LA and New York, and whenever we’re all in New York together, we just go work out. And we would always go to the Wayfarer, which is Lisle and Eric’s restaurant uptown. It’s more decadent eating there, but then we’d basically ask the chefs to do like a grilled fish with roasted Brussels sprouts, or fibrous veggies with a poached egg or something. And we decided it would be great to have a place with food we really love that makes you feel good after eating it, and you don’t, like, fall into a carb coma.”

He also said that he never wanted to have a restaurant.

“The truth is that it has not been my pipe dream to have a restaurant,” he said. “I know restaurateurs, and the amount of work that goes into a restaurant is nothing short of insanity. It's a real commitment, and most restaurants don't make it, so the odds are really against you.”

“What’s great about [Eric and Lisle] is that they have such a strong background in running restaurants. They know what operations are like, whereas with me, I just came in for menu development, and I came in as a home cook. So there’s been a lot of guidance along the way with editing and making it more concise and restaurant-friendly,” Porowski added.