With just days until the highly anticipated opening of the new restaurant at the Los Alamos Golf Course,  the Los Alamos Daily Post was treated to a tour and menu sampling Wednesday afternoon.

Patrick Mockler-Wood, Catherine Mockler,  Pawel Listwan and Dorota Listwan are partners in the new restaurant, which they have named Cottonwood On The Greens. While this is a separate entity, the partners also own Pajarito Brewpub And Grill at 614 Trinity Dr.

“Cottonwood On The Greens will be very different in atmosphere and menu selections,” Mockler-Wood. “We will have 12 beers on tap and none will ever be the same as we serve at the Brewpub. We’re striving to be more wine oriented with our food and will offer 28 different types of wine.”

Cottonwood On The Greens is set to open at 7 a.m. Monday, April 13. It will remain open 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday and serve a 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. brunch each Sunday.  In a few weeks, the partners anticipate adding dinner to the menu at which time the restaurant will remain open until 9 p.m. seven days a week.

“We believe people are going to really enjoy items on our breakfast menu such as our Rocky Mountain Eggs Benedict and our Bagel and Lox, which includes fresh Alaskan caught sushi grade salmon that we smoke and cure on site,” Mockler-Wood said. “On our new lunch menu we have a beautiful lobster roll that we’ll make from fresh live lobster flown in from Maine. Any of our new artisan pizzas are fantastic as well.”

Mockler-Wood suggests people looked for the aged New York steak and the chef’s choice Schnitzel, when dinner items are added to the menu. He added that stuffed lobster tail on the appetizer menu is especially delicious.

“We’re also going to be serving tableside Caesar salad at dinnertime,” he said.

Pavel explained that every ingredient is prepared on site.

“This way we can manipulate and play with the flavors,” he said.

Chef David Tripp from the Pajarito Brewpub is moving up to become executive chef over both restaurants, Pavel said. Mike Pollard is the banquet chef at Cottonwood On The Greens, Clinton Harlow is the Chef du Cuisine and Alex Medina is the line cook.

The new eatery has an occupancy limit of 76 and will be taking reservations for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The very first ATM in the North Community has been installed in the lobby.

“We have a full Seattle’s Best Coffee menu and we can add alcohol to the coffee,” Cathy Mockler said. “We have a full liquor license and can serve mixed drinks, beer and wine.”

The partners praise the County staff involved in renovating the space for the restaurant in the Community Building.

“For the tap system, they researched it and created an absolutely awesome system,” Mockler-Wood said. “It’s from Chill-Rite. The beer travels 60 feet through a glycol system in the basement. It does not use CO2 to push the beer to the taps – it uses a pump that has beer push beer. It gets to the tavern heads and goes through a compression process, which slows the beer down to push the CO2 back into the beer, which eliminates excess foam. The County went above and beyond our expectations.”

Adjacent to the dining room is a 2,000-square-foot community events room that can accommodate 136 people seated or 272 people at a stand up affair. The County owns the Golf Course Community Building so this events room is available for rent just as any other facility in town.

The difference is that Cottonwood On The Greens is the sole caterer for events in that room per their agreement with the County, and their liquor license covers all 96 acres of the golf course so patrons won’t need to obtain a special use permit to serve alcohol.

“This is a unique government – private relationship,” Pavel said. “We are helping each other to make this a success for everyone.”

The goal is to both accommodate the golf community and the community at large, he said, adding that one doesn’t need to be a golfer or have a golf membership to dine in the new restaurant or rent the community room for events.

Pavel added that he and his partners welcome comments and suggestions from the public.

“It’s a learning curve for all of us,” he said.

Cottonwood On The Greens is accepting applications for the front and back of the house. Email resumes to cottonwoodonthegreens@gmail.com.