Yarmouth cafe pauses operations ‘indefinitely’
Yarmouth Cafe Owner Pauses Operations After Lease Dispute and Unfulfilled Move to Portland
Yarmouth, Maine – Toni Magno‑Fish, the chef and owner of Magno Terra Café, announced that her restaurant will remain closed indefinitely after the former DeLorme building on Route 1—where the cafe had opened in April 2023—was forced to vacate. The decision follows a series of lease complications, a failed relocation plan to Portland’s West End, and mounting financial pressures that left the business without a new location.
Magno‑Fish’s café, a joint venture with the nonprofit food incubator Fork Food Lab, offered coffee, breakfast, lunch and takeaway dinner options. Fork Food Lab had a five‑year lease agreement with Global Village LLC, the DeLorme family’s real‑estate holding company, to occupy the space. When Fork Food Lab faced foreclosure in December 2025, it asked Magno‑Fish to take over the lease in November. Though the owner was prepared, the process stalled. Global Village chose to terminate the lease in May 2026, giving Magno‑Fish until the end of the month to leave. She negotiated a short extension, ultimately closing the café on July 17 and using the space for catering until early August.
“We had to unexpectedly leave the space and our plans to move to a Portland location fell through,” Magno‑Fish told reporters. “The truth is closing down a business or even moving a business is really expensive.”
In early September, Magno‑Fish had intended to reopen in a building in Portland’s West End that had formerly housed the grocery store Fresh Approach, which shut down in spring 2026. She envisioned expanding the café into a prepared‑food market, catering kitchen, and community space—a move that held personal significance. “I grew up in low‑income housing on Spring Street, and my mother lives in a Habitat for Humanity home in the West End,” she said. “It felt like a homecoming.”
However, renovations delayed the lease signing. In August, the landlord announced that it would pursue a different tenant, effectively canceling Magno‑Fish’s lease. With no location and dwindling funds, she decided to pause operations.
“I would love to continue the business. I believe in it. It does it well. It supports itself,” she said. “But I’m a bit burnt out.”
Magno‑Fish, 42, currently resides in Topsham with her husband and three children. Her family has lived in the West End for over 150 years, and her mother, siblings, and many relatives still reside in the neighborhood. She expressed gratitude for the community’s support during the final weeks of the café’s operation, noting that staff members who lost jobs and loyal customers had been especially encouraging.
“I am incredibly grateful for that, and for the staff who stayed beside me through an incredibly uncertain ending,” she wrote in an email to the café’s former customers.
Magno‑Fish’s experience underscores the challenges faced by small food‑service businesses in the region. Fork Food Lab’s financial troubles, the abrupt end to the lease, and the loss of the Portland location left the café without a viable path forward. While the business remains on hold, Magno‑Fish indicated a desire to revive Magno Terra in the future once she recovers financially and mentally.
The café’s closure adds to a growing list of local food‑service ventures that have struggled amid rising costs and uncertain leasing conditions. Whether Magno Terra will reopen remains to be seen, but her story highlights the resilience and vulnerability of Maine’s small‑business community.
