FOOD, FAMILY, AND CONVERSATIONS

FOOD, FAMILY, AND CONVERSATIONS

Veteran-owned Mackey’s Munchies brings joy to the Liberty Coast

by Courtney Stringfellow

Situated just north of Fleming Island, in Clay County’s Lakeside neighborhood, is a piece of New Orleans. With a kitchen for creating, tables for gathering, a quaint library for learning, and space for dialogue, Mackey’s Munchies is all about bringing people together.

Navy Veterans Brandye and Brian Mackey first met in Norfolk, Va. Brandye served as a plane captain, and Brian served as a mess management specialist (now known as a culinary specialist). The two married in August 1998 and have been sharing a love for food, family, and community ever since.

"We create memories every day, and some of them we don’t remember, because we’re so busy making new ones,” Brandye said. “I’m very proud of my husband. He’s an amazing chef, so he can make pretty much anything, and he’s very talented. He chose to use the cuisine that makes him feel closer to home, and I get the opportunity to introduce it to people every day.”

Brian grew up in Louisiana, hence the cajun and creole cuisine, and his passion for creating wholesome meals only increased after service. According to Brandye, her husband was cooking such large quantities of food at home that they would often bring the surplus to their neighbors and anyone else who might be hungry.

“My husband, you know, being on the aircraft carriers and cooking for large amounts of people, he was always overcooking a lot of stuff. We would have so much food left over…I was like, ‘This is crazy. I’m getting too chunky, too,’” Brandye said with a laugh. “And I’m the business person, so I was like, ‘We could make some money and sell some dinners with the overage that you’re cooking.’”

The couple started Mackey’s Munchies in Colorado in the early 2000s. As their family grew, so did the restaurant. But after living in Colorado for several years, the Mackeys decided it was time for a change.

“We had some friends that we had met in the Navy that lived here, and Mr. Mackey did not like the snow in Colorado. And so we wanted to move somewhere warmer, and we picked Florida,” Brandye said. “Louisiana has too many bugs.”

When the family relocated to Northeast Florida in 2009, they noticed a void in their community. As Brandye explained, it was difficult to find a good cajun restaurant and a place that truly made customers feel at home. In 2012, just a few years after relocating, they relaunched the family business in Fleming Island.

The space was sufficient for about six years. As the years ticked by, however, it became clearer that the Mackeys would need to move if they wanted to continue to reach more people, and they saw that opportunity in a space off Blanding Boulevard. It was a year in the making, but the family finally made Ridgecrest Plaza home in 2019. The kitchen is twice the size of the previous one, and the Mackeys are able to serve more people because of the restaurant’s proximity to a major roadway. They even have space for their “Little Lagniappe Library,” which is open to all who are in need of a good book or those wanting to share another one.

“We have a little free library here that focuses on a little extra, which the little extra is we look for books that talk about culture, Black history, Asian, Hispanic—you know, things that talk about different cultures,” Brandye said, “where you can feel like you belong.”

Anyone who’s met the Mackeys or who follows the family on social media can see they have a passion for people, and that extends to their food offerings. Picky eater? They’ve got chicken tenders and fries. Weird taste buds? You can mix it up with crawfish and mac and cheese. But for those in the mood for some fresh cajun or creole dishes, there’s nothing like a po boy or an order of jambalaya to take you back to New Orleans.

Whether you’re looking for your new go-to eatery or you’re just passing through, remember to stop by Mackey’s Munchies and say hello. Regardless of where you are in life, acceptance is waiting just past the pergola.

“Our place is a place where we would like to make everybody feel welcome, and in the times of COVID and the times of just current relationships in the world with race issues, what we’ve tried to create here with food is it doesn’t discriminate.

Everybody has to eat,” Brandye said. “Whether you’re rich, you’re poor, you’re Black, you’re white, you’re Army, you’re Navy, you’re Air Force, it’s a common denominator; you have to eat. And if the food is good, it can make you sit down for a minute and enjoy what you’re doing. You can sit down and have a conversation.”