Clover Food Lab · Everything will be different tomorrow

3pm special: Fried pickles – Grillo’s hots

17 May, 2012 in Menu by rolando | No comments

Elmer is back at the Clover kitchen packing up our 3pm special kits. These containers, from bottom to top are, dry batter mix, Grillo’s hots, flour and caper-mustard sauce at the top.

Travis Grillo is doing a great job with his pickles. We really appreciate what he does, selling a high quality, fresh, healthy and tasty product to the public. Generally speaking, we all need to consume more vegetables and he is increasing all of our opportunities.

We’re featuring these for the next few days, until we run out. If you ask, we’ll even fry up a habanero for you to taste, if your brave enough.

Worm journey: Part 2

16 May, 2012 in Customers by megan | No comments

Chris is so excited about his worm farm. He was so happy when it arrived that he wouldn’t let me joke about it or help him open it, instead like a kid at Christmas he opened the box and read all the directions in the corner of the office. I wish you could see the picture I took, but he wrestled my phone away from me and deleted it.

The worms go in that black box, we feed them food scraps and newspaper and they turn it into soil for the raised bed garden. Want to see how it works in person?

WORM KIDS DAY
this Sunday, 5/20, 3pm
Clover HSQ, 7 Holyoke St

Featuring worm activities, a Worm Expert, and more.

George Howell Coffee Company

15 May, 2012 in Location, Suppliers by rolando | 1 comment

That’s George Howell in our Harvard Square store, teaching Rose how to pour coffee. This picture was taken over a year ago. So why are you just now seeing George Howell coffee at Clover?

Some of you know that George Howell is a big deal in the coffee world. He brought high quality coffee from the West Coast to Boston in the 70′s with
the Coffee Connection. He was one of the first to treat coffee like wine, paying attention to the place Read the rest of this entry »

Worm journey: Part 1

12 May, 2012 in Design, Environmental, Harvard Square by Antoria | No comments

Antoria (HSQ) here. My first post. Have you seen our garden upstairs? This is all unbelievable to me. I don’t consider myself a gardener. I used to feel as if I had a black thumb. I have been known to kill a plant or two. I was so bad my grandmother refused to let me water her plants when she was on vacation.

The raised bed at Clover helped me realize that a plant is only as healthy as its soil. After a failed first attempt with some store-bought soil, I went out and got my hands dirty. My journey started in Dorchester at my favorite cafe. The manager Lucian, told me about his garden and how great used coffee grounds were for it. That I needed better soil to start with. So Chris brought me out to Lincoln to go to Lindentree Farm, and they let us take their compost back to the restaurant. This picture was taken a few months ago when the first sprouts were coming in.

Want to see what it looks like now? Come by next Sunday (5/20), 3pm at 7 Holyoke. We’re having a kids day all about worms, gardening, and compost. There’ll be a Worm Expert. You and your kiddos can plant a seed and take it home.

George Howell coffee: El Roble, Santander, Colombia

11 May, 2012 in Menu, Suppliers by rolando | No comments

We’ve wanted to serve George Howell’s coffee for a long time. It was actually the first coffee roaster that I visited, back in early 2009. George hosted Ayr and I at his roastery. I recall doing a formal cupping and discussing coffee varietals, light roast coffee, Dunkin’ Donuts, brew methods, among other things.

El Roble is an organic coffee from Colombia. It will be rolling to most Clover locations starting today. I think it’s smooth with a bit of a fruity tang to it. Really delicate. Definitely taste it black before adding milk and sugar. If you stop in to try it, be sure to let us know what you think.

Rhubarb T-Shirt

11 May, 2012 in Brand, History, Menu, Team by ayr | No comments

This is a T-shirt I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. Mostly because I love rhubarb so so much. But I’m not very happy with how it turned out. Notice how large the food icon is on most of our shirts. On this one it’s pretty tiny. Which is really too bad. I’ve also heard some criticism about the art on this one. Some folks don’t think it looks like Rhubarb.

I make a new shirt every couple of months. The plan has always been to engage local artists to design different shirts, but I haven’t really pulled that off yet. Not enough time to go around and find the right artists/ etc. In the meantime I have a really simple formula that I can execute myself. A big line image of a fruit or vegetable that is in season, our logo, date, and a T-shirt with a color that is close if not a perfect match to the produce. I had this idea that over time employees would be able to wear the T-shirt they like best, being able to maintain some sort of uniformity while allowing employees a degree of personal expression (especially when the artist shirts kick in). And I thought the sea of colored shirts would be fun in the context of our otherwise color-less trucks/ restaurants.

Lucia (communications) and I have been talking about using the color of the T-shirt as a sort of color theme for the month. Don’t get too excited, but we’re introducing a little bit of color to the trucks/ restaurant. The colored logos and colored lights. And we’re going to have them shift seasonally. I’m sure there are some marketing folks out there cringing with the idea of changing colors. But we’ve always been a company with a lot of change and evolution and I think this might be fun for everybody.

Mystic descends on Harvard Square tonight 8pm

10 May, 2012 in Menu, Suppliers by ayr | 2 comments

Guess where this picture was taken? No, not at lab at MIT. This is straight from a brewery. A very unusual brewery.

Not since our first Pretty Things launch have we had a beer launch that’s been as long in the working. My first notes from talking to Bryan are from November 2010. Most of you probably haven’t heard of him, except maybe from us. But I think everybody who is into beer will know Mystic really well someday.

Bryan worked in the commercial fermentation industry for years, helping big companies make alternatives to artificial sweeteners by using yeast to create flavors. Crazy, huh? And when he got into beer he decided to start testing and screening strains of wild yeasts. Last time I talked to him about it he told me he’s screened something like 100 strains. Ask him tonight what he’s up to now.

I realize this intro may not have you all salivating, but I know I’m not the only geek who spends time on this site. And this is some really unusual and beautiful stuff that’s happening in our backyard.

Rolando, Chris and I visited the brewery. They’re doing a bunch of stuff that’s nothing like the other breweries Read the rest of this entry »

MIT stereo fix

10 May, 2012 in Construction, Design, Operations by ayr | No comments

I had to re-wire MIT’s stereo last night. Like everything on the MIT truck it was the first stereo I installed and we’ve learned a lot since. I had to get under the truck 3 times, I wanted to share a picture of the underside of the truck with you all, but I couldn’t get a good photo with the iPhone. So instead you get my greasy hands.

Our stereo installation has been evolving. Besides just loving music myself, I think music is a really important part of creating community, a sense of place and connection. The sonic landscape of a place can be as important as the architectural or natural landscape. I’ve sort of messed this up over the past year by not rotating the music as often as I should on the trucks, but that’s another issue.

When I was trying to figure out how to do music on the MIT truck Darius of Q-Audio told me I should just use a car system. Makes sense, right? So I installed a amplifier, a head unit, and 6 speakers. The speakers are marine grade so that they can stand up to weather. They are low, near the customer, and many in number. Having many allows for a good sound field, and allows for music to be audible without being loud. Having them low means you get to hear the details of the music as a customer. I designed it so that as you walk near the truck the music becomes louder, and as you step away it trails off. We aren’t looking to blast music at anybody.

I bought the stuff online at Crutchfield, and have since. We use an iPod shuffle to run the music at MIT. That works OK. The latest unit I just bought for the LMA truck uses a USB stick, which is much cheaper. And the unit Ernie installed on the PRK truck uses a home-amplifier (Sony) combined with marine speakers. The advantage of that unit is that I didn’t have to install it myself!

3pm special: Beer-battered bananas

9 May, 2012 in Menu by rolando | 4 comments

One day this past Winter, we had been running a 3pm special which worked out quite well, beer-battered apples. I had just made myself a peanut butter, honey and banana sandwich, when I laid eyes on the beer-batter on the counter. Then the thought arose, to dip bananas in the batter in the same manner as the apples.

First, coat the bananas in cinnamon sugar. Then into the beer batter. Next immediately into the fryer for a few minutes. Really, really yummy. Careful, they’re super hot, right out of the fryer.

Jake, from Counter Culture Coffee, happened to walk-in for a cup of coffee, just as I was testing out the first batch. He gave me the thumbs up. Running at all locations through Tuesday of next week.

Shiny Mystic Kegs

9 May, 2012 in Harvard Square, Location, Menu, Team by Chris | No comments

Van just pulled up with 16 sixth barrels and one 1 half-barrel of Mystic’s Descendant. First time we’re featuring this brewer and its the first time these kegs will have been used. Look how shiny they are! The tap goes in tomorow, 5/10 at 8pm.

Bryan, the brewer, tweeted yesterday that this was the largest shipment they’ve had of draft to date. We can’t wait to share them with you.

Saved by the Bolding

9 May, 2012 in MIT, Team by Vincenzo | No comments

It really sucks when you realize after the fact you’re in need of something vital to your operation. This is James Bolding, he made a 10 minute round trip from MIT to HUB to get sandwich wrapping paper, just in time for the MIT lunch rush.

Mystic Beer Launch: Thursday 5/10, 8pm, Clover HSQ, 7 Holyoke St

8 May, 2012 in Harvard Square, Location by lucia | No comments

Come by the Harvard restaurant Thursday at 8pm for the launch of Mystic beer at Clover.

I think this will be a really special launch for a lot of you. Bryan, the brewer, got his PhD in how plants make fragrance in nature. He used to be a scientist for the commercial yeast industry, his job was to figure out how to make things taste like other things.

Now he makes beer using wild yeast. From what Ayr tells me, he literally goes out and harvests wild strains of yeast and turns them into beer. This is totally unlike most beer that’s being made right now in the U.S. So start thinking of your questions for Bryan, and get ready to taste. Tap for their Descendant beer goes in 8pm Thursday.

You’ve been eating organic…

8 May, 2012 in Menu, Suppliers by ayr | 5 comments

For longtime customers this list may be sort of surprising. We don’t talk too much about this sort of thing. I’m putting together training materials and was going through old posts and found this one about organic ingredients. I’ve been really unsure about how we should integrate this type of communication. So much BS in the industry. Maybe we just post on our website once in a while?

Why organic? Let’s make that a trivia question. I’ll buy lunch for the first person to comment/ twitter the answer.

Hint #1: answer may surprise you.

Hint #2: our eggs are not organic.

Why I quit my last job

7 May, 2012 in Greenway (DWY), Team by mary | 1 comment

Mary (DWY) here. Before I worked at Clover, I worked at one of the oldest family owned/operated burger joints in the city. It’s funny how different jobs you have affect your diet. That job turned me into a vegetarian. I’m not a vegetarian anymore, but it took me a long time before I could eat a burger again.

The worst thing was when I started finding Read the rest of this entry »

Clover photostream

7 May, 2012 in Customers, Menu by ayr | 1 comment

I got this email the other day turning me onto one of our customer’s photo streams. He’s been taking photos of his food for the past 2 years, every single thing he eats. (Yeah, it’s an MIT customer.) And he figures something like 100 of those photos are Clover food. So he forwarded us this amazing link.

Have fun: http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=39768211@N07&q=clover

Rethinking iced coffee

7 May, 2012 in Menu, Suppliers, Team by ayr | 6 comments

You might remember last summer our iced coffee was written up by the Boston Globe alongside Dunkin and Starbucks in a must-have-iced-coffee-in-Boston article. You might not know that I’ve never really been happy with our iced coffee method. It’s been nagging at me.

Our last big iced coffee change came when we moved from cold brew to our single-cup brewed iced coffee. The thinking at the time was that cold brew has WAY too much caffeine. The current method has undergone some tweaks, but basically we pour a cup onto ice when you order, not too different from our hot coffee. This method, pouring hot onto ice, may be the best thing in the world for iced coffee.

But I’ve been bothered by a few things. Read the rest of this entry »

Bikes!

3 May, 2012 in Greenway (DWY), Location by mary | 1 comment

Now that it’s warm out, a bunch of us ride our bikes to work. I’m not sure who thought of it first, but you can lock your bike up to the ladder on the side of the truck. We’re going to try to see how many bikes we can lock up to the truck at one time. So far, the record is three. Any customers need a place to stow their bike while they’re at work?

Giant vegetable gallery

2 May, 2012 in Greenway (DWY), Location, Menu by mary | No comments

I get really excited about veggies that look like monsters. Most of my posts have probably been of some root vegetable held up to someone’s head to compare the sizes. Tory, who’s been making our soups, pulled this one out of our soup kit the other day. It’s longer than my face!

PRK launch day

2 May, 2012 in Location by ayr | 3 comments

There’s a little celebration at Brewer Fountain today on the Boston Common. We’re told the Mayor will be there, and perhaps some other politicians. The event is scheduled for noon and will kick-off the newly renovated fountain.

We’ve been moved a bit. Something about photo ops, etc. That is, somebody is concerned about the truck being in the publicity shots I think. Some people are a bit offended, but I don’t think it’s a big deal. So you can find us today where Grillos normally parks, about 20 feet from where we normally park. Who knows, maybe you’ll like the new spot better?

We’re going to be continuing our coffee tasting series this week with a new coffee from Barismo and buttermilk donuts, free for coffee customers.

Matt’s coffee: Asocafe Farmer’s Cooperative, Bolivia

30 April, 2012 in Menu by rolando | No comments

Our new local coffee is grown in Bolivia and roasted by Matt’s up in Maine. This coffee is certified organic and comes from a cooperative called Asocafe, consisting of about 200 members.

One neat thing about this coffee is that it is grown at a high altitude (about 1500 meters). Also, the Typica varietal, which is grown in this region, is an “old school” bean, yielding 30% less fruit, but packing Read the rest of this entry »

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