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Southern Styles
Milledgeville restaurant serves Southern food with flair
By Jodi Palmer
The ambiance of Aubri Lane’s is chic but casual, exactly as owner Jason Medders planned it.
“My idea for the restaurant is Southern elegance in a relaxed atmosphere,” said Medders, 34. The Milledgeville native came home to start a Quizno’s a few years ago and then got bored “making sandwiches” and decided to try something new. His idea blossomed into one of the most popular restaurants in Milledgeville since opening May 2009.
Medders' experience is varied. He started working in the kitchen at Shoney’s when he was a teenager. Then the beach beckoned, and he left Milledgeville for St. Simon’s Island. After a few restaurant stints there, he was back near home at Lake Oconee resort Cuscowilla, then Atlanta and Oconee’s Reynolds Plantation at the Ritz Carlton before he headed home to put down his restaurant roots.
He formed a partnership with his wife, Traci, and his fatherin- law, Bobby Brown, to start Aubri Lane’s. The restaurant is named after his two children, daughter Aubri, 3 and son, Lane, 5 and occupies an old bank in downtown Milledgeville. Its vault serves as the wine cellar. The 1884 building was first used by the Milledgeville Banking Company. Polished hardwood and plants decorate the two-level historic setting and turn it into a warm, comfortable place to relax and enjoy the food.
The other partners help with marketing and major business decisions. But the restaurant’s heart and soul belong to Medders. “My experience as a line cook, a sous chef, a head chef and a banquet manager really prepared me for this,” Medders said. “I love it; this restaurant is what I have always wanted to do.”
To read more about what makes Aubri Lane's a unique dining experience, subscribe to Macon Magazine for home delivery or purchase the August/September issue at a local store.
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