Built on friendship, fuelled by food: Meet the mates behind one of Queensland’s best restaurant groups
The collective behind award-winning venues like Rick Shores, Central, Marlowe, Norté and Southside is now going by a new name. The freshly minted parent brand, Friends of Friends, is a reflection of the group’s desire to bring people together over good times and great food, as well as the relationships at the heart of the team’s endeavours. We caught up with some of the group’s figureheads to talk about the story so far and why friendship is key to their success.
In business, a common adage is ‘Never go into business with friends’. While there’s certainly merit to being selective about who you work alongside, in some cases, friendship can be a key building block to success.
Just ask David Flynn, Nick Woodward and Frank Li.
The trio are the brains trust behind one of Southeast Queensland’s most exciting hospitality groups, overseeing a portfolio of culinary concepts that includes subterranean Hong Kong-inspired restaurants, beachside Pan-Asian peddlers and nostalgia-laced Australian bistros.
For most of its decade-plus lifespan, the crew has operated under the banner of Fanda Group – a moniker conjured more out of necessity than any definitive attachment.
Recently, though, David, Nick and Frank realised that their group needed a more defined identity to not only better tether their venues from a public-facing standpoint, but also to properly communicate their core values.
So, Friends of Friends was born.
“I don’t think [a group] was ever something that we were seeking to present ourselves as,” David tells us, when we catch up with him and Nick to discuss the rebrand.
“But now we feel like there’s a reasonable need to do it, because we have more than one venue in two different cities. Not everyone actually connected the venues as having common ownership.”
Though some of you might be unaware of the connective thread tethering Friends of Friends’ venues, you’ve definitely heard of the venues themselves. Currently, the group’s collective includes Burleigh Heads icon Rick Shores, inner-city Cantonese spot Central, East Asian-inspired Southside (and its cafe-style offshoot, Goodside), Fish Lane newcomer Marlowe, and the Latin American-inspired double-header of Norté and Sueño, in Mermaid Beach.
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The group has been on a tear in recent years, with most of these venues having opened since 2024. But the Friends of Friends story goes back more than a decade to the heady days of the early 2010s, when Nick, David and Frank truly forged their friendship at popular Fortitude Valley nightspot, The Bowler Bar. It was here that the seeds of entrepreneurship were first sown.
“We realised we really enjoyed being in and around venues, whether it was things that were more entertainment based or food led,” says David. “There was a point where we all decided we wanted to individually start a business. We thought, ‘Maybe we should all do it together.’”
The group’s first venture was The Flying Cock, a two-level gastropub-style venue on Brunswick Street famed for fried chicken and late-night revelry.
“When we actually took over the pub, we expected to be there for like two years but it turned into almost seven years by the time we got out of there,” says David.
“That probably was what created the momentum for us to then go on and do the first proper restaurant.”
That first proper restaurant ended up being Rick Shores – a venue that endures as the group’s crown jewel concept. Situated on the sandy shores of Burleigh Heads, Rick Shores is one of the Gold Coast’s most recognisable dining spots – beloved by locals, roadtripping interlopers and celebrities for its exceptional views, bug rolls and red duck curry.
When Rick Shores opened in 2015, it joined a wave of restaurants revolutionising the Gold Coast’s dining scene, joining Hellenika and Etsu in putting the city on the map.
“The difference in the style of the venue was quite significant,” says David. “That was a big leveling up moment – there was an opportunity to do something in Burleigh, which felt like it was just starting to have its runway upwards.”
On paper, going from Fortitude Valley pub to glam Gold Coast restaurant was a considerable swing for the fledgling group – one that David and Nick agree was a huge risk. But risk-taking has since become one of the group’s distinguishing traits.
Since Rick Shores, Friends of Friends has opened neo-Chinese dining hall Little Valley in 2018 (an unfortunate casualty of COVID-19), Southside in 2020, Norté, Sueño and Central in 2024, Marlowe in 2025 and Goodside this year. Each venue is distinct in style and cuisine, with site-specific design schemes that set them apart – not just from each other, but from other venues in their respective cities.
“I like that we’ve taken some risks with food,” says David. “Norté is a good example of that. Latin American food isn’t strongly represented in Australia in general, let alone at that more elevated or casual fine-dining level.
Subscribe for updates“Central’s food is very specific, too – it’s also very, very authentic to what the cuisine of Hong Kong is.”
When it comes to the group’s ethos as far as expansion is concerned, Nick and David agree that the process is relatively straightforward – instinctual and organic to start, then intentional.
“We don’t necessarily have a strict brief for what we’re looking for or where we’re looking to open a venue,” David reveals. “It generally starts with us being really interested in and enjoying a particular type of food. It’s only then that we start putting our feelers out for a space.”
“We just build venues that we enjoy being in, dining in, drinking in and celebrating in – venues that we can be proud of and also enjoy,” adds Nick.
Now officially unified as Friends of Friends, David and Nick say that the group feels more cohesive than ever before. When pressed about the choice of the name itself, the duo say it not only refers to the mateship-laced mortar of the group’s beginnings, but also the culture fuelling their operational approach.
“Particularly in the last two to three years, we have sat down and intentionally discussed what it is that we’re really proud of?” says David. “What do we see as our differentiators?”
“[Friends of Friends] is a name that represents our approach to how we create our teams and how we create our venues. One of the things that we’re very proud of and really believe in is how we treat and collaborate with our team – all of the wonderful talent that we have across all of the venues.”
Hospitality can be somewhat of a transient industry. But when it comes to Friends of Friends, perhaps the biggest testament to its culture is its number of long-tenured employees – many of whom have grown with the group and moved into senior and partnership positions over time.
“Michael Leopold [general manager of Rick Shores] has been with us for ten years and he is absolutely incredible – he’s now a partner in some of the businesses as well,” says Nick.
“Bim [Phalee] who started as an apprentice in the kitchen nine years ago at Rick Shores is now senior sous. To see her growth and show that there’s a pathway for people in our group, that’s something that we’re all very proud of.”
Other senior team members, like Rick Shores and Norté executive chef James Brady, Central and Southside executive chef Benny Lam, restaurant manager turned business partner Maui Manu, and Marlowe executive chef and co-owner Ollie Hansford are also now key members of the Friends of Friends fold, proving that the friendship group is ever expanding.
“We’ve always been protective of our culture – it sounds cliched, but it sort of feels like a big family after a while,” says David. “We genuinely enjoy collaborating with our team, particularly those ones that have been with us for quite some time.”
And it’s not just senior staff that Nick and David see as key to the Friends of Friends vision.
“I want it to mean something to all of our staff,” says Nick. “I want them to feel proud to work in a Friends of Friends venue because they’re either learning a lot, they’re having a great time and they know they’re respected and looked after.
“We don’t want them to want to go anywhere. We want them to stay forever, if that’s what they want.”
“We believe that if we’ve got that love there – and also that belief in the thing that we’re creating – then that will flow through to our customers,” adds David.
Running a business of any form is hard, but it’s clearly made easier when you’re running it with pals – people you trust and admire. Ask the trio that started Friends of Friends and they’ll likely tell you they wouldn’t have done it any other way.
Head to the Friends of Friends website for menu details, booking info and operating hours.
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