PORTLAND (NEWS CENTER Maine) -- The Fork Food Lab's parent company, Pilotworks, announced it was closing after two years of operation in Portland. Monday, Forq LLC announced that the shared commercial kitchen will stay open thanks to the Sustainability Lab.
"It's a huge relief," said Nina Murray, owner of Mill Cove Crackers and member of the Fork Food Lab.
Forq LLC, which owns the Parris Street building the lab operates in, released the following statement Monday:
"Over the last two months, Forq LLC entertained a handful of offers to take over the business. Today, we’re extremely happy to have found an excellent partner in the Sustainability Lab. They have a history of helping the greater Portland region food economy and align with our goal of Fork Food Lab being a hub for food entrepreneurship. We are confident they will bring back the programming and
excitement that was present when Fork Food Lab opened."
Pilotworks announced in August it would be closing the Portland location at the end of September. It also announced plans to invest in several of its other locations in Illinois, Texas and New York.
Dozens of businesses pay a membership fee to use the commercial kitchen space. Mill Cove Baking Co. and Cape Whoopies are among the Maine businesses to have started at the Fork Food Lab.
"A shared kitchen is great, it saves people money and resources," said Bill Seretta, President of The Sustainability Lab. "But the interactions that occur is where the real action is and that's the benefit of any type of shared space."
"One of the big events that we put on a year ago was the Portland Food Festival. And that had people from all over the state coming to get business development experience," said Eric Holstein, co-founder of Fork Food Lab. "So the core of what Sustainability Lab and the Fork Food Lab are doing is a statewide thing."