J.D. Mullens

Mullens

In the early 1920s a man by the name of J.D. Mullen traveled to France as a cook for the military during WWI.   While eating in a restaurant, he discovered a dressing that he really enjoyed and thought it was something he could make in the United States.  He spent many evenings after work in the kitchen of that restaurant trying to perfect the dressing. 

Mullen’s began with serving his dressing in his own restaurant.  After many requests to purchase the dressing, he realized that he had an opportunity to start his own business manufacturing it.  He started in his own kitchen and quickly realized that he needed a factory.  He bought a small building on main street in Palestine, Illinois in 1948 where Mullen’s is still located to this day.   However, Mullen’s only owned this business until 1963 when he sold it to Otto and Alice Poehler and Robert Jones.   The new group of owners were not planning on running the business and instead appointed Roy Shaner as the manager.   In 1963 Roy Shaner bought the business and his family ran it until it sold to Penny Shaw in 2023.