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Second Mackenzie’s restaurant opening downtown

By David Reed
Jun 26, 2009

           Four years after opening Mackenzie’s Seafood and Steak in north Columbia, Chris and Charlene Thompson are opening a second restaurant downtown, at the former location of CC’s City Broiler. Again, it will be named after their daughter.

            Mackenzie’s Prime will open at the northwestern corner of 10th and Cherry streets in either August or September, depending on the speed of the licensing process, Chris Thompson said. The chef will be Peter Hawkins, who worked at the University Club and Grand Cru in Columbia and in Oklahoma before returning to Columbia.

            The menu will be similar to the Mackenzie’s on Rain Forest Parkway off Range Line Street, but with some more traditional items such as Filet Oscar.

            For Thompson, the decision brings his career full circle. He and Charlene had their first date at CC’s, and that’s where he learned to cook. Thompson went on to open Fat Otter’s Street Pub on South 7th Street where Forge & Vine is now located, and then started Mackenzie’s because he wanted to serve sophisticated food rather than pub fare.

            The building owned by Glen Strothmann was left vacant when the new CC’s City Broiler opened on Forum Boulevard. Much of the restaurant equipment and furnishings remained, and Thompson said that fact helped persuade him to open the second location.

            “I told my wife about two years ago that I’d like to open a restaurant downtown but I couldn’t afford it unless it was a turn-key operation, and I said that’s probably not going to happen,” Thompson said. Then Strothmann came along approached him with just such an opportunity, he said.

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