Nature's Storehouse, the natural foods store that has anchored downtown Canton since 1972, has knocked down a wall and doubled in size, with the addition of a full sit-down café serving everything from avocado toast to house-made ramen. The St. Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon-cutting for Nature's Café at 19-21 Main St. on Tuesday, marking the formal celebration of a project that had already been quietly serving customers for months.
According to North Country Now, the expansion removed the dividing wall between 19 and 21 Main St., doubling the store's footprint and adding both a kitchen and the new café space. Four upstairs apartments were also renovated as part of the project. Current owners Clark and Yen Maine, who are the fifth owners of Nature's Storehouse since it first opened on Main Street in 1972, were joined at the ceremony by Sandy Maine and Steve Hunt of Empire State Development.
Clark Maine said the goal behind the renovation was simple: the owners wanted a downtown place where people could slow down, eat local food, and meet their neighbors, per the outlet's reporting. That vision has translated into a menu that stretches well beyond the health food store's traditional shelves.
From Avocado Toast to House-Made Ramen
Nature's Café opened earlier in the summer at 19-21 Main Street as an extension of the longtime natural foods store, the station's report notes. Mornings start with breakfast options including avocado toast, fresh baked goods and a full espresso bar, with matcha and bubble tea also on offer. As the day goes on, the kitchen turns to Japanese sushi, fresh spring rolls, pressed panini, grain bowls and soups simmered in house.
House-made ramen joined the menu this fall, and organic açaí smoothies are served all day. Gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan options are available daily, and the café is open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week. For those who can't make it in, high-protein meal prep is delivered every Friday in Canton and Potsdam, and the full menu is also available through DoorDash and Uber Eats.
A Nod to the North Country's First Vegetarian Restaurant
Tucked inside the new café is a small piece of regional food history. Nature's Café features the restored sign from Willow Island Restaurant, which is believed to have been the North Country's first vegetarian restaurant, the same North Country Now report states. The sign now hangs above the café's vegetarian soups, a quiet tribute woven into the new space.
State Funding Helped Drive the Project
The expansion was supported by NY Forward, Empire State Development and National Grid, according to North Country Now's reporting. Separate coverage from nny360.com described the undertaking as a $662,000 expansion and renovation project expected to add a sit-down café, more retail space and the four rehabilitated apartments above the storefronts, identifying it as a NY Forward project.
Reported figures on the state grant itself vary. An Empire State Development announcement states that Clark and Yen Maine were awarded a $497,000 NY Forward grant in 2025 to facilitate the project, while mychamplainvalley.com reported the business received around $500,000 from the New York Forward grant, with the owners putting in around $300,000 of their own money. Mychamplainvalley.com's report also placed the project's groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday, April 2, months before Tuesday's ribbon-cutting formally celebrated the finished café.
Empire State Development has separately noted that New York had invested a combined $1 billion in the NY Forward and Downtown Revitalization Initiative programs since their inception as of February 2024, with the governor proposing another $100 million for each program in the Fiscal Year 2025 Executive Budget. For Canton, the payoff is visible on Main Street: a longtime neighborhood grocery that has grown into a full café, apartments and all.
