MOULTRIE — Vern and Fireball have their heads in the clouds. For these two local lads (and perhaps for Moultrie), that’s a good thing.

In three weeks, downtown Moultrie will get a taste of what they’ve been cooking up for the past 10 months or so — the opening of their first restaurant, the Blue Sky Grill, 125 First St. S.E.

Vern Bius, 29, and Randy “Fireball” Bannister Jr., 29, stand under puffy, idyllic clouds painted on a high ceiling with natural light emanating from the building’s original skylight.

Vern and Fireball gutted the building to start again from scratch. Except for the plumbing and electrical work, they did all the renovation work themselves.

They freed the skylight from behind a dull dropped ceiling and were celestially inspired to hang a cheery name upon their establishment.

The decor is comfortable and unrefined, an easy place to mingle with a rustic bar, televisions stationed in the corners and local art adorning the walls. There’s a small stage in the corner waiting for acoustic players to enliven nights out downtown.

Bannister’s father bought the historic downtown building, which qualified for the city’s low interest loan pool and a facade grant.

“If it would have been a nicer building, we wouldn’t have done such a good job on it. We would have opened it up like it was. But with it being so bad, we built like we wanted it,” Bannister said.

For years, Blue Sky remained pie in the sky to Vern and Fireball. The two men went to Colquitt County High School together and then on to the University of Georgia, where they both worked in a sorority house and fantasized about starting up a restaurant in their hometown. Since then, they each have acquired years of experience working in restaurants in various jobs. They held onto their dreams while finding their way around the kitchen in the food service business.

“We see a little bit of Athens in everything we do,” Bannister said.

Bius added that they wanted to bring back other cultural bits from some of their other favorite places, Savannah and Charleston.

The two young entrepreneurs noticed that downtown was beginning to fill up again and are betting the walk-in traffic will fill up the grill at lunch as well. At night, downtown is great because of all the available parking, Bannister said.

“We hear all the time where people say they want a nice place to eat, where they sit down and have a good meal and good service and have a drink if they want,” Bannister said. “We’re going to be open almost every day and have a more of a hometown style. We’re keeping it small too. All we have to do is get three or four good wait staff, and we can keep everybody going. Once you get too big, it’s hard to find help to keep your customers happy.”

“We want it to be just big enough where we can manage it ourselves,” Bius said.

Blue Sky Grill is open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday and can seat 60 people plus more at the bar/lunch counter. During lunch, blue plate specials feature Southern fare — meatloaf, fried chicken, baked chicken, greens — food Bius learned cooking with his mother and grandmothers. The specials can be served fast, but customers can order off the full menu anytime during operating hours.

True to their roots, they intend to use as much fresh local produce as they can and use a local butcher.

Bius describes his cooking style as “simplistic gourmet.” His menu includes chateau briand (in Moultrie terms, filet mignon for two, he said); a full line of steaks; catfish, shrimp or oyster “samiches”; kabobs; shrimp scampi; buffalo wings; ribs; jalapeno poppers; salads; and sweet potato chips with blue cheese dressing on the side.

The young locals think they are filling a neglected niche in the town and are happy to make their mark on the revitalization of downtown.

“It’s just home, and it always will be,” Bannister said. “We just wanted to come back here. We both like it a lot.”

“We just felt like in Athens, there’s thousands and in Atlanta, more than that, but Moultrie needed it,” Bius said.