(Photo by Johanna Kaiser for boston.com)

Passersby stop to look through the windows Olives in City Square this Saturday. The long shuttered restaurant quietly reopened this weekend.

By Johanna Kaiser, Town Correspondent

Olives in Charlestown's City Square reopened this weekend, two years after a grease fire shuttered the eatery owned by celebrity chef Todd English.

The restaurant, which has stood in City Square for more than 20 years, relaunched Friday with a soft opening for friends and family, and starting Monday will be open to the public.

The opening comes after months of renovations and promises by English that the restaurant would open soon.

The city's Liscensing Board considered multiple times to revoke the restaurant's liquor license for non-use during the protracted renovation process.

As of Saturday morning, there was still no sign or menu posted outside, but rows of set tables excited passersby who stopped to peer inside or snap a photograph with their cell phone often in disbelief.

'Wait, it's open?' said one passerby. 'It must be opening soon, right?' said another.

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