Shop Talk: Camille's Prime delivers high-class dining as Mount Pleasant's 'best kept secret'
Camille's Prime's private dining area is available can be rented for special occasions like birthdays and graduations.
In the same building as the popular Mountain Town Station, the mystic and elegant atmosphere of Camille’s Prime is home to pristine seafood, homegrown vegetables, and the choicest cuts of meat that accumulate into savory fine dining.
The restaurant opened in 2011 as a compliment of Mountain Town. Both restaurants were opened by Jim Holton, former mayor of Mount Pleasant and owner of various restaurants and brewery entities in mid-Michigan.
While the two establishments are mere footsteps away from one another, they cater to separate clientele and feature different menu items.
“Camille's has taken the forefront of the prime chophouse. We only offer prime meats and prime seafoods here,” Chef Kiel Nickerson said. “We’re more the upper-end clientele while Mountain Town is more of a casual bar.”
Mountain Town seats about 300 while Camille’s sits 65 on a comfortable night. Camille’s features a private dining area and wine lounge for rent.
Camille’s offers over 110 wine options plus other drinks and craft beers. The business grows its own produce in the garden behind the restaurant in the warmer seasons.
Nickerson said up until recently, as the restaurant begins to increase advertising, many did not know of Camille’s existence. Some customers would migrate to Camille’s if the line is too long at Mountain Town and are pleasantly surprised with the quality and atmosphere.
“For a while, we were the best kept secret in Mount Pleasant,” said Nickerson. “It’s crazy that even being in the same building as Mountain Town, many people don’t know Camille’s exists.”
Camille’s puts high-grade service, ambiance and food at the top of their list of priorities.
“When we get negative customer comments, I kind of take it on myself,” said corporate executive chef Brent Peterson. “I kind of uphold myself as being that next-level dining experience.”
As corporate executive chef, Peterson oversees five separate restaurant entities and creates the concepts for different dishes while still giving his sous chefs the opportunity to put their own unique spin on them. Brent’s father was the original chef of Mountain Town in 1996, his first job was doing dishes in his father’s kitchen.
He is also a CMU alumnus, graduating with a degree in Business Communications. At 24, Peterson traveled around the U.S. opening locations and training chefs for Seasons 52, a chain grill and wine bar that began in 2003.
Peterson was contacted by Holton in 2011 and has been moving up the ranks the company ranks ever since.
Byron Center residents Tom and Janice Boylow met with their friends Don and Connie Walker from East Tawas for lunch at Camille’s and were immediately impressed by the atmosphere and service.
“I have no fear in saying we offer the best experience in Mount Pleasant, or even Mid-Michigan ... we feel absolutely obligated to be cherished,” Nickerson said.
Going into the future, Peterson said he would like Camille’s to move away from being labeled as a special event’s location and instead be embraced by CMU students as the best dining experience in town.
Lunch hours are from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Thursday while dinner is served from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. To make a reservation, call (989) 773-0259.
Correction: A previous version of this story said the restaurant's dinner hours were from 5-9 p.m. on Thursday through Saturday instead of Tuesday through Saturday.
