By Jennifer Osborn

ELLSWORTH — The Fork In The Road Café is serving its last waffle Sunday, Sept. 5.

Owners Lewis and Becky Littlefield are closing their café, a labor of love for the past nine years.

Fork In the Road Café owners Lewis and Becky Littlefield are closing their doors on Sept. 5 after nine years in business. Staff photo by Denise Farwell

“We’re closing because we’re tired,” Becky Littlefield said.

The couple has been working seven days a week. The restaurant has been open nine years.

They have sold the building to Dave Sleeper, owner of Realty of Maine, who will use the space to expand the agency’s Ellsworth presence.

“We just had an offer we couldn’t say no to,” Littlefield said.

However, selling the business so that the café could continue under someone else’s direction was not an option.

“We would never sell the restaurant,” Littlefield said. “We’ve raised it from infancy. We’ve grown with it as it’s gotten bigger and more successful. It would be like giving up one of your kids, almost.”

The Fork was the couple’s first foray into the restaurant business.

“We’re just as surprised as everybody else at how great it turned out,” said Littlefield.

Littlefield said the decision was not an easy one to make but the timing is good.

“We’d rather go out on top with waiting lines,” Littlefield said.

Customers will miss the daily specials, which ranged from shepherd’s pie to blackened fish wraps, as well as a dizzying array of pies — not to mention some of the friendliest service Downeast.

There is a chance the couple might share a few recipes if customers ask. But Littlefield is modest about the fare.

“It always tastes better if you don’t have to clean up after yourself,” she said.

“We have made so many friends and so many connections over the years,” Littlefield said. “To not be able to see the kids that we have watched grow up, that’ll be hard.

“It’s cool that people come in and they love what we do,” said Littlefield. “It’s a great thing to feel that. We’re just plain old tired.”

A few months of relaxation is the first order of business for the couple after closing the Fork.

Then, “Lew is going to get into real estate,” Littlefield said. “I’m going to do some writing.”

The Fork has seven employees.

Finding enough help has been an issue for the business.

Littlefield said the “core staff” is “great,” but finding additional help has been “impossible.”

And, the couple’s only son, Dustin, 16, is “ready to work for someone else other than us,” Littlefield said laughing.

The café’s closing will be commemorated somehow.

“We’ll do something that last weekend to wrap things up properly,” she said.