We consider a Navier–Stokes–Fick–Onsager–Fourier system of PDEs describing mass, energy and momentum balance in a Newtonian fluid with composite molecular structure. For the resulting parabolic–hyperbolic system, we introduce the notion of optimal regularity of mixed type, and we prove the short-time existence of strong solutions for a typical initial boundary-value-problem. By means of a partial maximum principle, we moreover show that such a solution cannot degenerate in finite time due to blow-up or vanishing of the temperature or the partial mass densities. This second result is however only valid under certain growth conditions on the phenomenological coefficients. In order to obtain some illustration of the theory, we set up a special constitutive model for volume-additive mixtures.