In January 2023, Jeff Mao rented kitchen space from Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program at Brunswick Landing and put up a Facebook ad that cost $3 a day. That first weekend he sold 26 dozen bagels. Today he and his small crew hand-roll 3,000 to 4,000 bagels every weekend at Knead & Nosh, at 4 Bowdoin Mill Island.
Six months earlier, Morning Moose Coffee made the same move. It had been a pink trailer in a Richmond Agway parking lot, and now it has a real cafe on Main Street in Topsham.
Two businesses that started out with no fixed address both chose Topsham's Lower Village for their permanent homes this year. Meanwhile, the $49.9 million bridge next door is still finishing the public spaces that were meant to anchor the riverfront. Topsham's riverfront is getting finished in an unexpected order this fall: small food businesses first, state parks second.
The bagel shop that grew out of a hobby and a rented kitchen
Knead & Nosh opened on August 1, 2026, in the space that used to be Blueberries. Mao had gone to the cafe's owner hoping to wholesale bagels, found out the business had closed, and offered to lease the space himself. He took possession in April.
Before the storefront came a monthly subscription, then farmers markets. Then came a state title: last summer his Sichuan Dragon bagel won Maine's Best Bagel at the state bake-off.
The shop sells a traditional New York-style bagel: cold-proofed, hand-rolled and boiled in a real bagel kettle that cost $10,000 to ship in and install. The case holds 13 rotating flavors and five specialty cream cheeses. A bagel costs $3, and sandwiches like the Dragon's Breath and the Midcoast Heritage start at $9. Vegan sandwiches use plant-based meats and eggs from Midcoast Vegan. One thing the shop can't promise is gluten-free.
What sets the counter apart is Mao's Chinese heritage. He describes the Sichuan Dragon's ginger, scallion and garlic as "the equivalent of a Chinese mirepoix." He also bakes a Goji Berry Crystallized Ginger bagel. According to the Bowdoin Orient, Knead & Nosh is the only place in the Brunswick area selling bao, and mooncakes joined the counter for the Mid-Autumn Festival.
The Common Good Bagel keeps Mao's first supporter in the picture. Customers pay half price for a bagel that goes to MCHPP, the same organization whose kitchen he started in. He estimates the shop has donated around 300 so far.
"We have no intention of becoming a chain," Mao told the Orient. "This one is here, in this community."
The hours matter if you plan a visit. Knead & Nosh's website lists the bakery as open Friday through Monday, 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. For a Tuesday bagel, the website also offers a monthly subscription of a half dozen or a dozen, for pickup or delivery.
The coffee shop that kept its trailer
Morning Moose followed a similar path. Three sisters, Lindsay Beall, Olivia Winokurzew and Elsie Winokurzew, started the business with Daniel Beall in 2021. Their grand opening in the Richmond Agway lot was June 11, 2022. Six months later came a location at IDEXX Laboratories in Westbrook, and a second trailer after Richmond customers complained that their coffee disappeared whenever the first one left for events.
In fall 2024, the owners heard about a chance to buy the Topsham building. Until the former owners' lease ran out, they ran the trailer in that building's parking lot. Contractors quoted about $250,000 for the renovation, so Daniel Beall did the work himself with a friend's father who came up from Virginia. It took four months of ten-plus-hour days, seven days a week. The storefront opened February 28, 2026.
The owners expected people to want a polished, high-end coffee shop and planned to put the trailer away. "When people saw our trailer, they loved it," Daniel Beall told the Orient, so the trailer is staying. In June, the Topsham Select Board took up the cafe's request for seating and landscaping on the public right-of-way next to the building.
Here is how the two businesses compare, side by side with the farmers market across the river in Brunswick, which is making the same kind of move:
| Operation | Where it started | Where it is now | Permanent move |
|---|---|---|---|
| Morning Moose Coffee | Pink trailer, Richmond Agway lot, 2022 | Storefront on Main Street, Topsham, trailer kept | Opened February 28, 2026 |
| Knead & Nosh | Rented MCHPP kitchen, Brunswick Landing, 2023, then farmers markets | 4 Bowdoin Mill Island, Topsham | Opened August 1, 2026 |
| BTLT Saturday farmers market | Crystal Spring Farm, Brunswick | Same site for the 2026 season | Trust hopes to move to Dionne Farm in 2027 |
The bridge is open, and its parks are still being built
The new Frank J. Wood Bridge opened to two-way traffic on December 12, 2025. Reed & Reed of Woolwich holds the contract, and MaineDOT's plan goes well beyond a new road deck. It calls for sidewalks on both sides with pedestrian viewing bump-outs, special railings, lighting, parks at both ends, and clear views of the Pejepscot Falls site.
So far, the bridge itself is the part that's done. MaineDOT's most recent monthly report, for May 2026, describes crews finishing demolition of the old structure's spans and moving on to overlook and park work. They were pouring concrete for the Brunswick Overlook Wall, installing catch basins in Brunswick Park, starting partial removal of the temporary construction trestle, and starting to install the downstream bridge lights. In April, on the Topsham end, crews formed the curb of an approach slab and installed pales on the ornamental railings.
MaineDOT schedules all contract work to wrap up in late 2026. When the bridge opened, WMTW reported that MaineDOT planned a formal ribbon-cutting in 2026. As of today, September 30, no date has been announced in any source we found. MaineDOT hasn't posted a monthly update since May, so check the project's updates page before planning around the overlook.
That timing puts the two cafes ahead of the park work. Both cafes were open while MaineDOT's latest report still listed the overlook, the parks and the downstream lights as work in progress. Sea Dog Brewing still lists its Topsham restaurant at 1 Bowdoin Mill Island, open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. That makes Bowdoin Mill Island a place to get breakfast and dinner within a few doors of each other while the parks are completed.
October dates near the river
The Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust's fall calendar has some of the season's most specific dates. A few of them are in Topsham:
- October 2, 5:45–6:45 p.m. Romantasy Book Club with guest author Megan Bosarge at Topsham Public Library.
- October 3, 9 and 11 a.m. Sheep-shearing demonstrations at Crystal Spring Farm, with October 17 as the rain date.
- October 11, 10 a.m.–noon. A free forest-therapy walk at the Cathance River Nature Preserve, 28 Rensenbrink Way in Topsham. Registration is required and the walk is capped at eight people.
- October 13, 6:30–7:30 p.m. The trust's fall speaker series kicks off at Topsham Public Library, where Holly Parker, director of the Schiller Coastal Studies Center, will talk about storytelling and community sustainability.
- October 18, 2–4 p.m. A nature-journaling workshop at the Cathance River Nature Preserve. Registration is required.
- October 20, 2:30–4:30 p.m. The fall native-plant walk at Crystal Spring Farm.
The Saturday farmers market runs 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Crystal Spring Farm, 277 Pleasant Hill Road in Brunswick, with its last scheduled date on November 7. The trust's event page for that date also says the market runs "May through October," so check before you drive over that weekend.
Across Pleasant Hill Road, Phase One construction at Dionne Farm began in August 2026 and will continue through the fall. The trust hopes to move the Saturday market there in 2027. That's the same move Knead & Nosh and Morning Moose already made: from a borrowed spot to a home built for the purpose.
What changes next on Bowdoin Mill Island
The next milestone on Topsham's riverfront is the one the state controls. MaineDOT's schedule says the parks at both ends of the bridge and the overlook should be finished by the end of 2026, with a ribbon-cutting promised but not yet dated. Until then, the finished parts of the Lower Village are a $3 bagel on Bowdoin Mill Island Friday through Monday, a coffee from a shop that kept its pink trailer, and a walk across the new bridge sidewalks to see how far the park work has come.
When small operators like Jeff Mao and the Morning Moose team commit to a storefront, they're betting on one stretch of town. That's the same kind of decision I help business owners work through when they're comparing locations along Topsham's riverfront or anywhere else in Southern and Central Maine. If you're weighing a lease, a mixed-use building or a move from a trailer to a storefront, Shivam Kumar is happy to talk it through with you. Let's Connect.
