Penny’s Nitty Gritty Upscale Southern restaurant is opening in the Westin Downtown, and it will be open in plenty of time for basketball season.

“It’s about 45 days until it opens,” said John Elkington, the Beale Street developer who helped put the deal together. “They have a good space there; it just needs to get designed.”

Elkington said that he and Penny Hardaway have been talking for a long time about a restaurant that bears the name of the University of Memphis basketball coach.

“Penny called me about three years ago and said he wanted to be in the restaurant business, and I told him to wait about 60 days and get back with me,” Elkington said.

“But he is my buddy, my friend for years. I said I don’t think you should do it, but if you’re going to do it, let’s get you the best people.”

They talked to local restaurateurs about it, even the late Tommy Peters, who owned several restaurants including B.B. King’s Blues Club on Beale.

But they went in a different direction.

“The real story here is that this is women- and African American-owned,” he said.

They ended up with Gourmet Services, an Atlanta-based, Black-owned company run by Valerie Goldston, who hired consultant Elizabeth Rogers from Cincinnati to develop recipes that suited Hardaway’s desire for a menu of Southern, but not necessarily soul, food.

It’s heavy on fish, steaks and classics like shrimp and grits, but with a twist, Elkington said.

“But one thing Penny had to have was his grandmother’s sweet potato pie, and it’s on there,” he said.

When the Westin opened in 2009, the restaurant was Sole and was owned by a group that included local restaurateur Ben Brock. It later became Bleu Restaurant & Lounge and has been through several chefs over the years.

“Here’s the deal,” Elkington said. “Most hotels have restaurants, but this isn’t going to be a hotel restaurant. It will be a restaurant that’s in a hotel, kind of like Chez Philippe used to be.

“People will go to the Westin just to eat there.”