Barbara Lawlor, Nederland. Probably one of Nederland’s most popular items on a menu over the years has been Whistler’s mountain muffin. Described as the mountain version of Eggs Benedict, the mountain muffin is not returning to Whistler’s, as so named, but Whistler’s is also no longer Whistler’s.
Those who are looking for the English muffin loaded with cream cheese, cheddar and mozzarella cheese melting into each other over avocado slices and eggs can still find them in the newly painted yellow building with the dog George out front. This time around, however, they are known as Ned’s muffins at Ned’s.
Ned’s is named, oddly enough, after Derek and Becky Dwyre’s dog, who passed away last summer. They say the dog, in his lifetime, had fallen out of a moving truck, had been trampled by a moose and almost drowned, but just kept on coming back, just like Becky and Derek’s dream of the restaurant they worked in for 25 years.
It burned down, it got sold, they left and came back and now, for the fifth time, on Monday morning, the couple re-opened the restaurant, with a different name but with the same heart and dedication that was there from the beginning.
Loyal local customers lined up for breakfast after being deprived of their favorite food since October.
In June of 1990, Derek came to Nederland and started Whistler’s. In 2001, he hired Becky and the couple worked side by side running the restaurant, creating a legend.
It came to a halt in 2006, when the building was destroyed by fire, but the dedicated team wasn’t about to let it go. A new bright building was constructed at the site in 2008, and soon it was business as usual. At one point the Dwyres decided to move on and went to Maui. They soon learned that the paradise resort was only paradise if you could afford it, and the couple came back to Nederland in 2011. Derek managed two restaurants and Becky took on various jobs. They still had the dreams pushing them to find a way to reclaim Whistler’s.
The restaurant floundered and then closed, and Becky and Derek worked at its resurrection. Last April, just a little more than a year ago, the couple remodeled and restored the restaurant, with a grand opening on April 5. They were welcomed back by the community; it was the fourth time they had come back. After a successful summer, due to unfortunate circumstances, the Dwyers had to vacate the premises and once again, on October 11, watch the doors close on their dream.
“Last summer we treated the restaurant as if it were our own,” says the couple. They remodeled, sanded, painted, installed new appliances and worked 24/7 to make it go. There was no way they were not going to fight to get it back. They ended up negotiating with the owner of a restaurant in Evergreen who had been interested in buying the building. In March, he closed the deal and made another deal with the Dwyers: they were given a seven-year lease to re-open and run Whistler’s.
“This has been my 25-year dream,” says Derek. “I am ecstatic and scared. Last summer was a great dry run for us and we worked out all the kinks. Over the winter we talked about what we would do differently.”
The dining room has been rearranged, with removable walls for nights when there is live music, making way for a band. Of the 17 employees that worked there when it closed, 14 of them have returned, a family reunited.
“This is our philosophy,” says Becky. “If you treat people right, they will treat you right.”
Ned’s is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner with chef Jake Erdman grilling the Flatiron, Ribeye or New York strip steaks, and the Ahi tuna. If Ned’s muffin isn’t your favorite breakfast, there is always the Sweet Swine, a Belgian waffle covered in fresh bacon crumbles and chocolate chips topped with chocolate and caramel syrups, and whipped cream.
It is entrees like this which inspire Ned’s motto: Always Delicious, Not Necessarily Nutritious.
