Mukja started as an idea between two friends in college as a joke at first, but became increasingly more serious as various opportunities fell into place.

The two friends, Peter and Sean, had incredible amounts of restaurant experience, but wanted to create something different and exciting. They decided to put their talents together to cook up something new and powerful in their two-bedroom apartment. One idea followed another and after many long nights of discussion and debate, Mukja was born.

On one unfortunate evening however, Sean was involved in a severe car accident which left him paralyzed from the waist-down. Despite this setback, Sean kept up hope and continued to pursue his passion for cooking, however none of the restaurants he contacted would offer him a position, due to his new injury. At the same time, Peter was having a hard time finding a restaurant that shared his values of genuine hospitality and was growing disillusioned with the industry after witnessing firsthand how supervisors take advantage of their best employees–there was nowhere to call “home” and the hospitality was almost never genuine.

After dozens of rejections and a lot of frustration, Sean and Peter decided to pave their own path and create their own restaurant, where Sean could become the chef that nobody would give him the chance to be and where Peter could finally create an environment where people felt welcome and where the hospitality and love for one another was genuine.

Mukja, quite literally, was a dream come true.

That night, Peter and Sean decided that Mukja was not to be just a restaurant, but a belief. Mukja is about believing in yourself, pursuing your dreams, and bringing love and hospitality to each and every person.

From then on the Mukja Motto became “Good Food, Good Times, Good People” to reflect the values of the company and how it desires to approach its guests, who are an extension of the family.