Wolf & Mermaid café wins contract to run Los Alamos lab's food service
The local coffee business went from farmers markets in 2022 to cafeterias, catering and food trucks at the Lab.
LOS ALAMOS - Wolf & Mermaid Enchanted Café, which started with its owners selling coffee beans at farmers markets, has signed a food-and-beverage contract with Los Alamos National Laboratory, an Oct. 7 Lab release says.
Under the contract the café will run Lab cafeterias, cafés and micro markets, offer catering and manage the Lab's food truck program. The release headline says it will feed 18,000 Lab employees.
Scott Baird and Kate Kudynska started the business in 2022 and took free management classes through Los Alamos MainStreet's Business Accelerator. They opened a Los Alamos café in 2023, then a second location at Santa Fe Airport, and added a downtown Santa Fe café in 2025. The Regional Development Corporation gave them grants of $3,000 for a pastry oven and $20,000 for a coffee-bagging machine. They expect 75 employees by year's end.
Baird told an RDC business summit Sept. 15 at Northern New Mexico College that he had "never dealt with this easy or smooth of a process" for a government contract. Lab operator Triad National Security helps fund both MainStreet and the RDC.
"This is a win for regional small business," said Kathy Keith, director of the Lab's Community Partnerships Office.