The family-style prime rib dinner at Mac's Old House is back, and it's protected by contract. When Ron and Jamie Harrison and Joe and Desiree Martinez bought the restaurant at 3100 E. 18th Street, they leased it to an operator on one condition. "We lease the restaurant to Sheri and required her to keep the same name and menu," Harrison told the Antioch Herald before the August 15, 2026 grand opening.
The food was settled before anyone picked up a hammer, so the money went to everything around it: the kitchen, the parking lot, the bathrooms, how you pay and how you get takeout. If you ate here before the June 2025 closing, the dinner should be familiar. Getting to it and paying for it is where you'll notice the changes.
The menu was locked before construction started
The new owners were saying "same menu" from the beginning. Martinez told the Antioch Herald in December 2025 that Rick Cook, Mac's longtime head chef and manager, would "go there and help with the recipes, show them how to cook the food to make sure we get everything right." The farewell post from the previous team, quoted in that same article, said Cook would be "passing along all of Mac's classic recipes."
Those recipes go back to 1983. That year Gary Noe bought the house and Cook joined him after more than a decade at Bertolas in Oakland. Their stated aim was to bring Bertolas style to Antioch. Here's what that menu looked like before the closing, per the Antioch Herald's April 2025 report:
- Dine-in dinners came with hot baked bread, minestrone, salad, pasta and sautéed vegetables
- Entrées included Extra Cut Prime Rib, Ribeye Steak, fresh Salmon and Red Snapper, Calamari Steak, Grilled Chicken Breast and Ground Round
Sheri Vallero, who also runs Mel's Diner in Antioch, now operates the restaurant with her daughter Terriane Reed and son Roger Born. Martinez gave her a small amount of room in December. "I told her the original menu, the original recipe. She can add a few things." So the prime rib-and-pasta core stays put, and a few new items may appear around it.
Where the renovation money went
Since the food wasn't changing, the construction focused on the building itself and the parts of a visit around the meal. Harrison listed the work for the Antioch Herald: "We added 15 feet to the back for a bigger kitchen. More parking stalls. Two new beautiful bathrooms." He added that they "got all the smoke off the walls," installed new lighting chosen by Desiree Martinez, kept the bar and wrapped the beams.
| Before the June 2025 closing | After the August 2026 reopening | |
|---|---|---|
| Payment | Cash only for decades | Debit and credit cards accepted |
| Service | Dinner only | Dinner daily, with lunch announced to start Aug. 17 |
| Takeout | More takeout options listed as a planned upgrade | DoorDash, with a pickup spot planned on the side of the building |
| Kitchen | Original footprint | 15 feet added at the back |
| Name and menu | Mac's | Same, required in the lease |
| Bar | Original bar | Kept by the owners |
Paying by card is a first for Mac's. The Bay Area News Group reported that for decades Mac's took cash only, with a dinner menu ranging from $8.95 to $23.95 and drinks at $4 to $5 until the last service. Those were the old prices. Our research turned up no published menu for the reopened restaurant, so check current prices when you go. The previous team did say in its December 2025 farewell, quoted by the Antioch Herald, that the new team "is striving" to keep prices low.
Lunch changes the schedule more than anything else. Harrison told the Bay Area News Group that adding lunch was "a shift from its former dinner-only schedule to better accommodate customer demand."
Why the building needed this much work
The renovation was this big because of what the building started out as. The Antioch Herald and the Bay Area News Group both trace it to a family home. A November 2025 report from Contra Costa News gives earlier dates, 1908 and 1952, so the timeline below follows the Herald and Bay Area News Group:
- 1925. Floyd "Mac" McKinney builds the house with his father.
- St. Patrick's Day, 1956. McKinney turns part of the home into a bar and runs it for 17 years before he sells and retires.
- 1983. Gary Noe buys it and opens Mac's Old House as Antioch knows it today. McKinney later builds a small home behind the restaurant and comes in daily for a cocktail and dinner at the same table. The restaurant hangs his picture above that table.
- June 22, 2025. Mac's serves its last meal after 42 years under Noe and Cook. Their farewell post says the house "has served well over three million meals."
- December 2025. The sale to Martinez and Harrison is announced. Per county real estate records cited by the Bay Area News Group, the buyers paid $850,000 for the 3-acre property, which includes a 2.5-acre vineyard.
- August 4 and August 15, 2026. A soft-opening dinner for friends, then the grand opening, about 14 months after the closing.
That December 2025 farewell post noted the building needed major work, "including bringing everything up to 2025 code." The work took longer than planned, and the original target of a June 2026 reopening, a year after the closing, slipped to August.
Martinez described the work to the Antioch Herald this way:
"Starting in November I've been working on this every day since. A labor of love. It turned out good. We did a complete restoration. I told Gary and Sue, my goal is to honor the legacy of Mac and the family and continue it."
He also said the owners plan to keep the restaurant "for the next 40 years, the next generation," and hold it as a family trust.
Before you drive over
Hours are the one part of the reopening you can't count on yet. In August, the Antioch Herald reported dinner daily from 4:00 to 10:00 p.m., with lunch from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. starting Monday, Aug. 17. As of mid-October, map and delivery listings show different schedules from each other, and the restaurant's own website isn't working. Here's what to do:
- Check the Mac's Old House Facebook page or Instagram for current hours, or call ahead, especially if you're going for lunch.
- Leave the cash run off your list. Debit and credit cards are accepted now.
- Look for the drawing of Floyd "Mac" McKinney just inside the front entrance.
- Expect a new room with the same bones. The owners say they kept the bar and kept the place "as original as possible."
The same owners, elsewhere in Antioch
Harrison told the Antioch Herald that he and business partner Sean McCauley "have so many places out here," and he called Mac's "one of the last historic places in Antioch." McCauley also turned up in downtown news this summer. Contra Costa News reported in July that Clavo & Canela Cocina Café had closed a little over a year after opening. McCauley said several businesses were interested in the space, including a Hawaiian BBQ, a southern comfort food concept and a hamburger spot. No replacement had been confirmed in our research.
On Deer Valley Road, Butter Pecan Bakeshop held its grand opening October 2 at 3345 Deer Valley Road. The Antioch Herald reported that owners Dale and Desiree Ingram are offering the Vallejo-based company's 10 cookies, including the brown butter pecan, plus two specials each month.
Mac's owners kept the bar and beams and rebuilt the kitchen, bathrooms and parking. If your older Antioch home needs updates and you're wondering which ones affect its value and which ones just cost money, Deborah Maisterrena can walk through it with you. Let's Connect.
