Brookhaven will soon have a new restaurant that serves Southern cuisine with an Italian twist.

Betty’s Eat Shop, located at 126 S. Whitworth Ave. and owned and operated by Matt Fitzsimmons, is set to open in early June.

“The way I would describe the food is Southern diner food with a little rustic Italian influence because for the last four years I’ve worked in Italian restaurants,” Fitzsimmons said. “I’ll be doing most of the cooking. All of the pasta, wet or dry, I will make in-house. I wanted to cook the food I like to eat. It’s not going to be stuffy.”

The restaurant will feature a main dining room in the front, with a separate bar in the back. An open, wood-burning brick fireplace will sit in the kitchen to allow patrons to watch their food being cooked. The kitchen will be completely open to the restaurant, Fitzsimmons said.

“The design right now is for it to look like an old café,” Fitzsimmons said. “Up front it will have the look of a soda fountain, with cushioned back chairs that are bolted to the floor, a lower backed counter and wood booths. We had to gut the whole building and basically start over.”

“There will be a bar in the back,” he said. “It is a shotgun-type building, so you will be able to walk through the main dinning room, down a hallway into the bar. Also, with the renovations downtown, we will have a back patio that will allow access to the bar. The bar will feature a smaller menu. We plan to host an alcoholic brunch on Saturdays, as well.”

Betty’s Eat Shop will serve dinner Thursday through Saturday and lunch Wednesday through Sunday. The bar will be open Thursday through Saturday.

“For the first few weeks, we will probably only serve lunch,” Fitzsimmons said. “After that, dinner will be served three days a week and lunch five days a week.”

Fitzsimmons modeled the restaurant after the five that resided in the building before Betty’s Eat Shop.

“Betty is my grandmother,” Fitzsimmons said. “Eat Shop — I wanted the name to reflect a little history of the building. The building is a little over a hundred years old, and it’s been a restaurant five different times. There was a restaurant in the ‘40s called Della’s Eat Shop — I think that was the third restaurant — and then it was Grice’s Eat Shop before that.”

Fitzsimmons bought the building six years ago while working in a Jackson restaurant after graduating from the University of Mississippi. He has lived in Charleston, South Carolina, and Nashville, Tennessee, and studied under several prominent chefs.

“I’m from here, so I have always wanted to open up a restaurant in Brookhaven,” Fitzsimmons said. “The idea for me was just to come back here and give people back what I’ve learned through cooking. I’m just looking to add to the community, and I felt like it was time.”