We Chat To David Flynn & Nick Woodward On Building A Hospo Group Based On Friendship
the people you meet
By Victoria Lewis | 16th October 2026Behind the accolades for their seven venues including Rick Shores, Southside, and Central, the co-founders of the recently rebranded friends of friends hospitality group are just a couple of mates with a profound love of food. Read full interview here.
What cultivates a good workplace team culture differs depending on who you ask. If you ask David Flynn and Nick Woodward, co-founders of the newly renamed friends of friends hospitality group, they’ll tell you an important factor is finding people you wouldn’t mind sharing a beer with after a shift.
Fittingly, the pair have been friends for nearly two decades, sharing many a pint while growing their South East Queensland hospitality empire, formerly known as the Fanda group, with mate and co-founder Frank Li.
All stories have a beginning, and for Nick and David, food has always been the starting block. David tells me what drove them to open their first venue, saying, ”It was definitely about creating experiences tied to food.” This passion led them to open what was to become one of Burleigh Head’s most iconic venues, Rick Shores. Always using food as a vessel for connection, Nick reminisces with a chuckle about how they secured the beachfront site. ”We pretty much bribed our way in [by] cooking some delicious curry, and we were lucky enough to come away with it after that.”
The year was 2015, and though the Gold Coast’s fine dining scene was growing, the concept of a modern Southeast Asian restaurant on the water at Burleigh Heads was unusual to say the least. David laughs, “People thought we were a bit nuts.” Nick tells me there were rumours that the site was “cursed” for its proclivity for flooding. It was indeed within their first six months of business that a flood swept through the dining room, lapping at the kitchen. But it was the team’s determination to reopen, sandbagging and cleaning around the clock, that finally got locals on side. They were trading again, having solidified their place in the hearts of Gold Coast locals, by the end of the week.
Nick Woodward on the early days of Rick Shores: “ It was definitely much easier to get a booking in those first three years than it is now. Like even in that first year, some of those winter nights, you know, you’d have seven people booked, booked on a Tuesday or Wednesday night. It’s crazy to think where it is now compared to where it was.”
Since then, the pair have gone from “a couple of young blokes having a crack”, as David describes the early days, to owning and operating a string of seven diverse and award-winning venues across Brisbane and the Gold Coast, each universally loved and highly renowned for the unique dining experiences tied to them. But for all the awards, it’s really the shared experiences at the table that mean the most to David and Nick. Warm service, a welcoming atmosphere for all, and storytelling through food – that’s what gets them going. “I just think I want people to feel like they never want to leave our venues once they arrive,” says David.
The immersive nature of their venue experiences is no accident. Be it Southside, set amongst the greenery and brutalist architecture of Brisbane’s cultural precinct, or the underground basement of Central, with its open kitchen inspired by street dining in Hong Kong, when the team conceptualises a new venue, no stone goes unturned. The cuisine has to marry with the venue, which has to then marry with the design, and sometimes, they “strike gold”, finding a venue with a vibrant history to draw upon. Central was once a colourful cultural hub frequented by the Bee Gees, called The Primitif Café. Marlowe was a 1930s apartment block with an air- raid shelter that became a tiny cigar lounge on its ground floor. David explains the latter venue’s homely energy, saying, “the concept really leans into the fact that you’re literally dining in people’s old bedrooms and old living rooms.” Each venue’s story adds to the dining experience.
Nick Woodward on his favourite thing about Central: “When you hear a Cantonese version of Elvis or Kylie Minogue or something like that, it just gets you going. It’s like proper escapism down there.”
”See, everything needs to align,” Nick chimes in, and he means even down to the smallest details. He informs me that he once hand-drew his own design for bespoke cutlery to be used at their Latin American restaurant Norté in Mermaid Beach. David adds his commentary on the affinity he has for crafting a “kooky” playlist to set each venue’s tone (which, in Central’s case, is a collection of Cantonese pop-anthem covers). “I guess we’re trying to create, you know, a holistic experience from fit-out to atmosphere to the food itself.”
David and Nick have an uncanny ability to welcome people into their world, through their food, their venues, and a disarming laid-back charisma. They have built their success by connecting with those around them, and it’s this network that they wanted to honour with the new group name. They tell me they have some staff who have been around for ten years since the beginning, others who have gone from chef to co-owner, and others still who have made the move from a Brisbane venue to one on the coast. It seems, once you’re part of David and Nick’s world, you’re greeted with a smile, and invited to stay as long as you like.
“I think my favourite thing about Southside is the train bridges ‘cause they have this like brutalist, monolithic feeling to them,” says David Flynn.
I ask what their secret is to longevity. David replies, “It’s the collaboration, the sum of parts, that actually creates special things and also creates longevity. I would say we’re just proud of all our people.” At its core, friends of friends is a testament to the relationships that founded the business, the wider network that has supported the group from the beginning, and the growing community of staff, growers, producers, patrons, and supporters who are yet to become part of the story. Because at the end of the day, for these down-to-earth Brisbane locals, accolades and great design can only take them so far. For David and Nick, the joy is in the meals you share, the memories you make, and the friends you meet along the way.
Imagery: Supplied (friends of friends)
