South Portland’s Fork Food Lab keeps the Maine food scene forever fresh

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • September 3, 2025

If you want to know what’s next for Maine’s food scene, look no further than South Portland’s Fork Food Lab. The shared commercial kitchen space and food business incubator is the epicenter of the state’s up-and-comers. On any given day, you’ll find Fork Food Lab members at their kitchen stations baking hoagie rolls, simmering jams, prepping pork bellies or packaging spreads for sale at local farmers markets. Members run the gamut from food trucks and carts, packaged foods businesses and prepared meal shops to catering companies and private chefs. “There’s really nothing quite like this in Northern New England,” said Corinne Tompkins, the facility’s deputy executive director. The incubator has helped scores of successful food businesses launch in the nine years it’s been operating.