Meet Alex Friedman, Executive Chef, and Brooke Novy, General Manager of Bistro Off Broad, one of the best restaurants in Winder, GA.
Who would have thought that there’d be a restaurant in downtown Winder that’s in the weeds because they can’t make antelope carpaccio fast enough?
We’d like to thank Alex and Brooke very much for sitting down with us to discuss their experience working in Barrow County.
A Community Bistro
Bistros are all about people. You go anywhere in Europe and it’s all about the people. There are business meetings, engagements, family events and birthdays.
All of these important things happen while you’re breaking bread around the dinner table. Sharing conversations and memories.
That’s what this place offers.
Our slogan Celebrate Food means that food is meant to be celebrated. We like to build on peoples experiences around that. As a guest, you come into the restaurant for an experience, to be pampered in a way.
People love coming in here and learning about the chef, the building, and what we do here.
Every detail that the owners put into this building shows just how much love they have for it. They’re not restaurant people, but they have hospitality in their souls.
They are great as they have faith in us, support everything we do, and also give us the credit for it.
We have built a sense of community around the Bistro.
We’re a chef inspired restaurant.
There’s no specific label like Italian or French for the Bistro.
Our menu is very eclectic. And every month we try to do a different specialty event such as celebrating Valentine’s Day in February, doing a traditional Tacos & Tequila night or trying out international nights such as when we hosted Korean BBQ, Greek, Oktoberfest, St Patrick’s Day nights.
I think there’s something to be said, that we’re not some out of towners or a chain group that just showed up to make money. We are a part of this community and are all about making this town better. If people can look at us and say if they can do it, we can do it and that’s pretty cool.
Our vision is that this is going to be the center of the town, where you can grab a bite and then go shopping.
Grassroots Growth
The success of the restaurant has all been word-of-mouth and social media.
And now there’s this restaurant in the middle of downtown, Winder Georgia where it’s in the weeds on a Friday night because we can’t make antelope carpaccio fast enough.
And who would have thought, three years ago that there’d be restaurants in Winder, GA where people are fighting for steamed mussels and dry age steaks and oysters, things of that nature.
There’s a clientele for it and we know that. We are not an island here and it takes all of what’s happening in downtown Winder to make all of us successful.
It’s a cool thing to be able to say we’ve got one of the top farm to table restaurants in Georgia in downtown Winder. We’ve started to see people from Atlanta coming here to see what the buzz is all about.
But we do it and then others follow its a snowball effect. Then an art gallery opens, some boutique shops and all of a sudden you can turn downtown Winder into something really special.
I think the biggest part of this is about the community. We would not be where we are if we didn’t have our amazing investors and the regulars that come in.
We have some people that come in three times a week just because they love the food so much and it’s a homey place.
If you come in this place on a Friday night, it’s packed.
It’s busy during the day time with a lot of business people and meetings happening in here. There are couples and families as this is a family place.
We just love working here. There’s such a warm feeling.
Embracing History
The Vankirk family, who own this restaurant and property, fought for their vision to renovate and restore these buildings. They were prepared to do whatever it takes to preserve as much history as possible.
Their favorite thing is that we can touch the building and know that there’s 120 years of history there. They believe in revitalizing these old buildings because of the rich history.
Who would want to tear that down?
That’s why I think people are really rooting for us, because we’re investing in Winder while preserving its history.
There’s nowhere else to go like it here, unless you go to Atlanta. We have quality food, quality service, and an independent environment that’s full of history.
Georgia Grown, Farm-to-Table
We are all about supporting farmers in the state of Georgia and that’s where the majority of our product is sourced.
We try to use the surrounding community farms as much as possible. We use Fish Creek Farm and Fry Family Farm.
We get our eggs from a farm here in Winder and the honey comes from Bold Springs in Monroe.
Our flour is ground fresh for us locally. You don’t know what you’re missing out on until you’ve had pasta made with fresh flour.
Then I needed to get dairy. It took me about a month to work it out but now we get all of our dairy from Sparkman’s Cream Valley in Moultrie.
We had to fight for it because initially they weren’t going to deliver. So I linked up with Farm’d who is a logistics company that connects small farmers with chefs to give them a marketplace.
The goal is to have this restaurant as the benchmark for farm to table, Georgia grown.
We want to be known for doing everything we possibly can to support local farmers. We have to call like 15 different farmers to place orders but it’s worth it when you can taste it in the food.
Nobody else in this area is really doing this and I think that this generation are looking for that, knowing what’s going into their food.
One of the farmers we use is called Hamthropology and it’s a business of preservation through cultivation. They raise direct descendants of the Ossabaw Island Hog, who are originally descendants of the Iberian Pig from Spain. He’s a certified feral hog farmer and uses proceeds to help preserve the species.
We’re excited to showcase what we’re doing here in the community and what Georgia really means to us.
I think that what puts us on the map is that we’re doing everything different. You go to Atlanta and everything is always the same.
We have the benefit here in Winder to have farms all around us. Before I even contacted Farm’d who were able to add products from South Georgia to my repertoire that I wasn’t able to access before, I was still getting 80% of products coming in locally.
Lucky for us, our investors and employers believe in the vision that we have here. For them, it’s more about the experience we are creating here and what we’re doing for the Barrow County community. Bringing people together.
Future Plans — The Lobby at the Maddox
The building was purchased in 1904 by the Maddox family. Since then it has gone through changes, and the current owners purchased the building in hopes to restore its history and put it back in use for the city.
The owners began renovations about two years ago and they’ve renovated floors two, three & four which will be utilized as rentable office space. All the work is being done inside so you can’t tell from the outside. They renamed the building, the Maddox building after the Maddox family and what they’ve done for the community.
So the restaurant is called Lobby at the Maddox. The original bank lobby is the restaurant. The original teller counter you once walked up to is now the bar. The original wood and the safes are still there.
We will utilize the old bank vaults for wine storage which will be temperature controlled.
The target launch date is late May.
We haven’t quite finalized the hours yet. We’re thinking that Mon-Fri and possibly Sat, by day, we’re going to be a coffee shop.
There’ll be coffee tables, couches, soft chairs and a bar area.
We’ll be using H&F Bread Company out of Atlanta and they will be delivering to us three times a week. Fresh sweet & savory danishes, muffins, croissants, bagels, coffee cakes, things like that. So, we won’t be doing any cooking over there during the daytime.
There will lots of grab and go choices with your coffee. We’re trying to open up for a different coffee experience. You can stay all day, work, and drink coffee as well.
We’re calling that Cafe at the Lobby.
So then we will have the restaurant open on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays in the beginning. The bar will most likely open at around 4pm with a small limited menu that’s part of the existing menu. So that way if you worked in the office and knocked off at 4pm, you could still come over for a drink and a bite to eat if you wanted to. And then the dining room will open around 6pm for full dinner service.
So we have discussed that it’s going to be a one sitting restaurant. So if you make reservations for say 6:30 PM, we have no intentions of trying to flip your table. You book that table and it is your table all night long. Our intention is that we want this to be an experience for customers.
We want you to share plates, wine, desserts. There’s certain items on the menu that will be table-side preparation. You can come in and relax all night long and feel no pressure to eat and grab the account quickly.
The food will be upscale. It’s still very approachable food but it’s going to be taken to another level in terms of quality.
I think the appeal is going to be that it’s a quiet place where people can come and enjoy themselves. There’s just such a buzz.
We’re very excited to be part of two of the best restaurants in Winder, Ga.
It should be a lot of fun.
We hope you enjoyed learning about Chef Alex Friedman, Brooke Novy, and story of The Bistro Off Broad.
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