VALDOSTA – The words “casual” and “adventurous” are not used together in the same sentence very often, but Friends Grille + Bar in Valdosta has managed to pair the words perfectly by offering a chef-driven menu served in a beautifully relaxed atmosphere to create a casual and adventurous dining experience.

With its high ceilings and chef bar, the architecture of the Friends dining room is an inviting and attractive space that feels like California wine country without abandoning any South Georgia charm.

 

The Friends menu is similarly eye-catching: caesar salads prepared with kale, croutons made from sweet potato biscuits and southern fried ribs.

“I want the unfamiliar to catch their eye first, and the familiar to catch their eye second,” said Randy DeCoudres, chef and co-owner. “So, if we take something they might feel less comfortable with, we pair it with something they do feel comfortable with.”

DeCoudres feels guests just might find something new to love if they are open to new culinary experiences. One of the ways he does that is by taking dishes his grandmother might have made and elevating them into southern cuisine.

“Using sweet corn as a sauce is a neat example,” DeCoudres said. “Sweet corn at grandma’s table would just be a side dish, but we’ll sauce a fish with it. And one of the most unique things we do is crispy fried baby back ribs,” Decourdes said. “There’s nothing more southern than fried ribs.”

Friends has three different kinds of pastas on the menu: two that are always available and a third that rotates.

“We like to bring in unfamiliar pasta shapes,” DeCoudres said “ The idea is to just open their minds, eyes and stomachs to things other than just spaghetti.”

Friends serves a tortellini dish that isn’t your average tortellini with marinara: braised duck, apple, pecans, jalapenos and balsamic-brown butter. And because Friends strives to locally source fresh food, many of the dish’s ingredients were grown nearby.

“The pecans are from South Georgia Pecan” said DeCoudres. “And we use jalapenos from Moultrie.”

For dinner entrees, Friends offers signature dishes, premium steaks and a wide selection of vegetable options.

“Something that we always put a lot of thought into is our vegetable dishes. Every place serves a steak. Now, I happen to think ours is the best in town, but it is those side items that make those dishes special,” DeCoudres said. “I want people talking about the number of vegetables we offer. If you want a vegetable plate, we are really going to wow you.”

The entree menu includes slow-braised beef short ribs, beer battered Argentine Red Shrimp with zesty tartar and a pineapple-kiwi salad, pan roasted pork tenderloin, miso broiled Icelandic Cod with a cilantro-peanut relish, grilled Springer Mountain chicken thighs with BBQ glaze and creamy pimento cheese and more–all for $20 or less.

“We didn’t want anybody to come in and get sticker shock,” DeCoudres said. “I don’t want them to look at our menu and go, ‘Oh, wow. Everything is 30 or 40 dollars.’ So, everything on this menu is 20 dollars or less. It’s an important part of the design of our menu.”

“The Burger,” as it’s known, falls under that $20 price point and has become a guest favorite.

“We serve 50 to 60 burgers a day,” DeCoudres said. “The burgers are hand-pattied, served with house-made pimento cheese, house pickles and a unique potato roll to serve it on.”

Friends even serves “fancy sauce” with their burgers.

“It’s a spin from the movie ‘Step Brothers,’” DeCoudres said. “Mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, a little bit of Worcester, and that’s our version.”

The only menu items that costs more than $20 are the premium steaks: an eight ounce filet, an 18 ounce all natural ribeye and a 26 ounce bone-in prime ribeye for two.

“We only recently added our steaks to the menu,” DeCoudres said. “We serve top quality steaks. We prepare them Pittsburgh style with a heavy crust on one side of the steak. We grill it hard on one side, and then it goes into the oven to cook. The grill we use to cook our steaks gets up to about a thousand degrees. Our grill guys cook hundreds of steaks a day, and with that level of expertise we are going to be able to cook that steak better than any restaurant in town.”

Side items at Friends Grille + Bar are fun and playful and change with the seasons. At the moment, you’ll find roasted baby carrots with creamy feta dressing and basil oil, broccoli with toasted garlic and Havarti cream, and field peas with sweet corn and tomatoes.

“Field peas is probably our signature dish,” DeCoudres said. “We’ve been doing it since day one. The field peas, tomato, sweet corn, it’s just real reminiscent of something grandma might make, but grandma would cook all those separate. We kind of combine them all.”

Pastry chef Juli Powell prepares all the desserts for the restaurant.

“We are coming into the fall, and we are going to be doing a pumpkin cheesecake with a blondie crust,” DeCoudres said. “During the summer, we’ve got the ice cream makers going non-stop. Some of our standout flavors are sweet corn and blackberry and roasted strawberry buttermilk. Having her focused on desserts allows my other chefs to focus on the savory dishes. Lots of times, desserts at restaurants are an afterthought because they are focused on the dishes.”

Before, during and after your meal, Friends Grille + Bar offers a unique selection of beverages to compliment dishes and expand horizons.

“When we first opened, we wanted to come out of the gate and try and do our best to open people’s minds to trying new things, and it starts with that first beverage or glass of wine,” said Justin Justin Stephens, director of operations. “We had two years without any mainstream liquors. We went with the alternative premium items because we want them to try something different when they come out to eat.”

Friends offers around 40 different wines to buy by the glass, and staff members are trained to know which wines pair best with the restaurant’s dishes.

“We are constantly doing staff tastings. That’s really the only way you learn about wine,” said DeCoudres. “We also have wine tastings for customers every Wednesday on the patio and at the bar. Justin hand picks wine and does a tasting for $12. We are all about getting that person to try a new wine.”

In addition to the impressive wine list, Friends also offers hand-crafted cocktails.

“We think cocktails and spirits are a part of the dining experience. We infuse all of our own flavored spirits. We are infusing our own lemon vodka, orange, strawberry and jalapeno,” said Stephens. “We do seasonal things: cucumber rosemary gin, cumquoat gin, fig infused bourbon. We have a very nice brown spirits selection. You walk into our beautiful bar, and you’ll notice 30 different bourbon selections. You’ll find scotch as well.”

Friends offers 20 different beers on tap and in bottles with the hope that guests who have a beer they normally like to drink will branch out and try something different. Bartenders are trained to make suggestions based on an individual’s tastes.

“Our beers constantly change week to week. We love using local breweries,” DeCoudres said. “We like to have a wide array.”

From the beverage selection to the desserts and from the appetizers to the entrees, dining at Friends Grille + Bar is like grabbing a passport, catching a flight to somewhere you’ve never been before and landing in place you didn’t know you would like so much.

“We like to transition people to try something new. We have our servers and bartenders trained to make suggestions,” DeCoudres said. “We are here to provide a service for folks who want to expand our go on a culinary adventure through beverage and food. That’s our passion.”

Friends Grille + Bar is open six days a week at 3338-B Country Club Rd. at Summit Pointe. Visit the Friends website for more information.