Kathy Mockler and her son and business partner Patrick Mockler outside the North Road Inn in Los Alamos which is closing after 32 years in business. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
The North Road Inn at the intersection of North Road and Urban Street in Los Alamos. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com
Little did Kathy Mockler know when she came to Los Alamos in 1979 to work on the Antares laser fusion projects at Los Alamos National Laboratory, that she would actually end up in 1993 establishing, owning and operating highly successful and popular North Road Inn for 32 years.
When her son, Patrick Mockler was nine years old, Mockler said she sat in her office at LANL and thought about ways she could earn a living and become a stay-at-home mom.
“So I bought this horrificly ugly 10,000 square foot building because it had ‘potential’,” she chuckled. “And I left the Lab. It was a brand new building and had only been occupied for two years. It took nine years to build and there was plumbing in every room.”
The 10,000 square foot building at 2127 that Kathy Mockler and her son Patrick Mockler converted to a thriving bed and breakfast inn. Courtesy photo
Outside the North Road Inn. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
Mockler said the neighbors were happy when she bought the building and that she was going to do something with it.
“At first it was apartments with bed and breakfast in a few rooms and then I realized apartments and bed and breakfast are like oil and water. They don’t go together. So I eventually converted the whole building to a bed and breakfast inn,” she said.
Mockler said when she opened the Inn, she felt energized. Her son, Patrick Mocker, helped her from the beginning.
“I did everything from day-to-day operations, remodeling, maintenance, cooking breakfast and cleaning rooms. We liked to joke that running a bed and breakfast inn us easy – whichever 12 hours of the day you choose,” Patrick said.
“All those years I was open, Christmas Day was the only day I didn’t cook breakfast,” Kathy said. “Now I’m too tired to do this anymore.”
The Mocklers are having an open house and while there are lots of items for sale, many of the household items will be free. There are many beds of all sizes, refrigerators, air conditioners, stoves, Kathy said. The open house will run from Oct. 18 through Oct. 27 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
“I have a have a 37-year old jade plant that’s 6 feet by 6 feet. It will not fit in anybody’s door. It comes inside in the winter. I’ve never let it freeze in the 37 years I’ve had it. I’m trying to get a home for it,” she said.
Kathy said she and her business partner Patrick own other property in town and operate the Pajarito Brew Pub in the Mari Mac Village Shopping Center. As they move forward they will be in the commerical real estate business locally.
“For 25 years, I pretty much worked for the government contractors and when I transitioned into working for myself, this huge breath of fresh air came into my life and I got to be with people in the morning when they’re fresh and they’re happy. There’s just a niceness about people first thing in the morning. I don’t have to go to work. I don’t have to experience all the craziness that’s across the canyon,” Kathy said.
The front door area at 2127 North Road which is the location of the North Road Inn. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
The view along the front of the North Road Inn. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
She said she has thoroughly enjoyed running the North Road Inn.
“Everyone says, ‘Oh, it’s a lot of work,’ and I say, ‘No, it’s a lifestyle. You know a farm is a lot of work. It’s a lifestyle and how many farmers are really happy being farmers? Almost all of them!'” Kathy said.
Asked who was the most unusual guest that ever stayed at the North Road Inn, Kathy said, “The French team that put the diagnostics on the Mars rover’.
“They were wonderful. I always told them that I bet their moms are proud of them.,” she said.
She recalled asking a visiting Representative of all the casinos, which one of them handles their money the best.
“She didn’t miss a beat – she said Sandia, because their tribe is allowed to go to school any time, anywhere they want from kindergarten on. Then I had a retired senator from Vermont early on in the business. who gave me a bumper sticker that said, ‘Uppity Women Unite’.” Kathy said. “I’ve had Nobel Prize winners here. Some of the finest minds in the world I’ve shared the mornings with.”
The hallway at the North Road Inn. Photo by Maire O’Neill/losalamosreporter.com
Before COVID, Kathy said her clientele was very international. It consisted of scientists from all over the world.
“The science community is a really small community and they’ll often know each other. I came from the Cold War, when the Russians were the enemy, and I never thought that Russian scientists would be walking through my door. I remember one morning when I had Russians in two rooms and when they came to breakfast, one of them looked across the table and greeted the other one. They knew each other!”she said.
Kathy is very proud of the fact that many people’s first experience of Los Alamos has been at the North Road Inn.
“Many, many people who transitioned into this town have stayed here. They were families that moved here. They were scientists that collaborated with our scientists at LANL,” she said.
The Los Alamos Reporter owned and operated a bed and breakfast inn in rural Nevada in the late 1980s. She and Kathy chatted about the focal point of an inn – the dining room table. The long table in the North Road Inn has provided a relaxed and comfortable place for guests to gather and the breakfasts were tasty and substantial. The Reporter filled in for Kathy for a couple of weeks several few years ago and found that guests were fond of the blue corn pancakes and happy that they could have eggs cooked just the way they liked them.
If the walls at the North Road Inn could speak, they would have some grand stories to tell.