Chef Brian Grossman is holding a soft opening of his new cafe this week before celebrating its grand opening in Biddeford’s North Dam Mill on Monday.
Grossman, owner of the Farm to Coast Mobile Kitchen food truck, said the cafe will be open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. After the new year, he’ll start offering once-a-week pop-up dinners.
The chef ran his food truck business out of Fork Food Lab in Portland for the first two years, but after the community commercial kitchen announced it was closing at the end of September, he started looking around for a new base of operations. Fork Food Lab has since been rescued and reopened, but Grossman decided he liked the idea of moving outside of the city, where it’s cheaper to run a business. And he liked the idea of joining the growing food scene in Biddeford. “I think there’s a lot of potential and there’s a lot of stuff going on right here,” he said from his new kitchen.
The big draw to Biddeford was the opportunity to open a brick-and-mortar version of Farm to Coast, as so many other food truck operators have in southern Maine in recent years. Grossman said he’ll serve breakfast and lunch, and the food will be similar to what he sells on the truck – a local, seasonal “chalkboard menu” that changes frequently but still includes customer favorites such as steamed buns and tofu banh mi. Grossman is also bringing in items from other food businesses, such as baked goods from Boulangerie in Kennebunk and Portland-based Suga Suga. Coffee and espresso will be provided by Maine Coast Roast, and teas will come from Nellie’s in South Portland.
The cafe has seating for about 30 people in the adjacent lobby, Grossman said.
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