Brendan and Paige Mulder have brought fine dining to Creston with their new restaurant Mulder’s.
Born and raised in Creston, Brendan Mulder graduated from high school with honors before deciding to attend the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts (PICA) on Granville Island in Vancouver for formal training.
“After attending high school I didn’t know what I was going to do but I knew I had a love for cooking. As I was growing up I would make dinner for my brothers when my parents worked late at our family-owned business. I started out cooking Fettuccine Alfredo and progressed into foie gras by the time I graduated high school. My training at the Pacific Institute was amazing. I had 12 hours of hands-on learning each day with one hour in the classroom for book studies. I am trained in classical French and Japanese cooking.” said Brenden.
For a few years after graduating from PICA Brendan worked in various restaurants in Vancouver and Edmonton and eventually ended up back in the Creston Valley where he worked at a number of local restaurants and pubs.
It was when Brendan’s parents Tony and Eunice Mulder came to Brendan with an opportunity to open a fine dining restaurant in Creston when the vision for Mulder’s restaurant was born.
“I told myself seven years ago that the end game of studying at the Pacific Institute was going to be owning my own restaurant within 10 years. When my dad came to me and asked me if I wanted to rent this building from him and open a restaurant my wife and I couldn’t pass it up.”
As summer was coming to an end, Brendan and Paige decided to open Mulder’s with a soft launch and to introduce Creston to the menu and a fine dining experience.
“We opened with a soft launch to see what Creston would appreciate in regards to different types of dishes. For the first month, we experimented with our menu and received feedback from over 200 people. The feedback we received helped us perfect our dishes and the menu. In the end, we settled on a classical French menu.”
Mulder’s want their customers to get the full experience of fine dining.
“We don’t have wifi or tv screens in the restaurant. We want people to enjoy food, wine, and conversation.” There will be no staring at computer screens here. The idea is to get people engaging with each other in the room, not across town.
Everything on the menu is made from scratch with 87 percent of Mulder’s menu being made with BC products.
“We are reaching out to local farmers to help us diversify the menu,” Mulder explains. “In the future, we would like to implement as many local products into our menu as we can. We currently serve wine from local Creston Valley wineries Skimmerhorn, Baillie-Grohman and Wynnwood Cellars.
Mulder’s has served over 1500 people to date already.
“We want to be known as the date place in Creston. A restaurant with a quiet atmosphere where people can enjoy good food and company. We feel Mulder’s is that restaurant you can go to for a special occasion,” states Brendan.
Reservations are highly recommended for Friday and Saturday between 5-7 pm. In the near future, Mulder’s will be expanding to include a full banquet room for Christmas, birthday and wedding parties.
Mulder’s Restaurant is located at 1821 Canyon St, Creston, BC V0B 1G5