Mystic Brewery happens to hit Clover on the same day as the Bruins play in the Stanley Cup. I know, it’s an exciting night for Boston. I’m asking permission to broadcast the game on a small iPod : )
But I don’t want to detract from the amazing beer that’s about to happen here. 8pm tonight, Bryan from Mystic will be at CloverHSQ with a keg of his brand new Summer Saison. You’ll have time to grab a glass and have a chat even before the first period ends.
You’ll never find strawberries at Clover, except for a thin window of time in late June and early July when they’re just beautiful. Come get them. They’re finally here. This season is a particularly sweet and beautiful one. Maybe some of our farmers can weigh in on why that is. But I don’t remember strawberries being this good last year.
WHERE TO FIND STRAWBERRIES AT CLOVER:
Granola and Yogurt, Oatmeal, Berry Berry Salad (wheatberries, strawberries, balsamic vinegar), Strawberry Soda, and Strawberry Lemonade.
*We’re also taking advance orders for a special batch of Strawberry Whoopie Pies you can pick up at CloverHSQ and CloverHUB next Friday, 6/28. You can pre-order them by the box using our new Pickup Menu here.
Contractors didn’t have the building ready for inspection tomorrow. Now I have to reach far and wide and virtually pull back all those emails I sent to all of you. We’re re-scheduling our pre-open activities. Can’t wait to see you there!
NEW BURLINGTON DATES, JOIN US!
Clover VIP Party (invitation only)
Wednesday 6/26
Free Sandwich Day (open to public)
Thursday 6/27
11am-2pm
First full day of service!
Friday 6/28
6am-9pm
We’ve been thinking about how to publicize our openings even while we’re still under construction. Here’s one idea. We throw some Sign-maker’s paper (around $15 for a big roll at Artist and Craftsman in Central Square) on the inside of the window. And we write on the outside of the window using these beautiful thick colors of Montana Paint Cans ($8 per pen). They’re water-resistant but you can remove them easily using Windex.
Here’s a picture of the Burlington site. What do you think?
We’ll tear this off on Wednesday 6/26 when we open to the public for Free Sandwich Day 11am-2pm…
Come to Clover Wednesday to celebrate the launch of Mystic Brewery’s Summer Saison. Bryan is the brewer. He’s the one in the black T-shirt at our last Mystic launch. Bryan achieves amazing flavor just by using yeast. He has a house strain of yeast he’s selected and propagated and a fermentorium you can visit in Chelsea. We’re cracking open the first taste of his Summer Saison. We’ll have snacks, live jazz, and the full Clover menu too.
MYSTIC BEER LAUNCH w/Bryan (brewer)
CloverHSQ, 7 Holyoke St
6/19, 8pm
Ayr, Michael, and I were at Burlington setting up. I was cleaning construction dust off the windows. Ayr said, “Let me show you how to do that better.” He stepped outside with me and showed me the best way to do streak-free Windex (if you want to know, you have to do it really fast, minimal Windex, clean paper towel).
Then we heard, “CLICK.” The door to the restaurant locked. Our backpacks, my computer, Ayr’s car keys. All inside. It started pouring rain. It was 5pm on a Friday and all the contractors were gone.
All I’m going to say is that 30 minutes later Ayr had broken into CloverBUR, and Michael got the first key to his new restaurant. We promise we’ll have our act together on 6/27, Free Sandwich Day at CloverBUR.
Brookline….Burlington….Brookline….I told Ayr this is the last time we open 2 restaurants with virtually identical names within days of each other! We’ve all been driving in between the two restaurants, and stumbling over the names. Aah!
And now it’s almost here. Can you feel the excitement in the air? Spread the word to friends and family in Burlington and Brookline. Join us for our pre-open and grand opening events.
BURLINGTON (updated)
Clover VIP Party (invitation only)
Wednesday 6/26
5pm-8pm
Free Sandwich Day (open to public)
Thursday 6/27
11am-2pm
First full day of service!
Friday 6/28
6am-9pm
CloverBLV (6 Harvard St, Brookline)
- 6/19/13 Final inspections
- 6/22, 6/23 Set-up and informal open house (coffee, popovers, CSA pickups, open to all)
- 6/24/13 Free sandwich day (11am – run out, open to all)
- 6/25/13 First full day service (6am-9pm)
*All dates subject to change pending inspections. Check this post for updates.
Wednesday we launch Mystic Brewery’s Summer Saison.
I sent Kayla to Liquor World to buy a bottle to taste at our manager meeting, but we realized it’s not even on shelves yet! So we tasted Saison Dupont for a reference. This is a beer brewed in Toures, Belgium. When we visited Bryan of Mystic, he told us this beer is basically his reason for making beer.
It’s got a crazy texture, sort of soft and bubbly on your tongue. Kind of like champagne. Perfect for summer. Bryan is going to be breaking open the first keg of his summer saison for Clover customers. Join us?
MYSTIC SUMMER SAISON LAUNCH
with Bryan Greenhagen, brewer
6/19, 8pm-10pm at CloverHSQ (7 Holyoke St)
Tahini is a sauce made from sesame seeds. We drizzle tahini over our fried falafel and fried eggplant.
Tahini is nutty and creamy. I’ve been learning how important it is in the Middle East. It’s an ingredient in hummus and baba ghanoush, but it’s also used as a sauce for meat, fish, and vegetables. You can add parsley, garlic, yogurt. You can make it thinner or richer depending on what you’re serving it with. Claudia Roden has a recipe for a chunkier tahini dip made with walnuts. My Lebanese cookbook has a different tahini depending on whether it’s destined for eggplant, butternut squash, fish, or meatballs.
If you want to make it at home, you need to get your hands on some Tahina (a really thick sesame paste, we love the tahina from Sunshine Bakery in Methuen). (more…)
Clover managers are in a little book club together. Want to read along with us? Get yourself a copy of Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us.
Have you read this? It’s about the processed food industry and links to the obesity epidemic. I think it’s going to raise some interesting questions among our leaders. What does “processed” food really mean? Why does it taste so good? Can we glimpse a future where fast-food is A.) not processed, B.) accessible price-wise to everyone, C.) delicious?
Some of us are reading on a fleet of Kindles, others have the hard copy. If you want to join, start reading. Leave your comments here.
Some people are very scared of rhubarb. I had a customer who politely declined to sample our rhubarb agua fresca because she said rhubarb was poisonous. Luckily only the leaves are toxic, and you would have to eat 30kg in one sitting to get sick. At Clover we treasure rhubarb. It’s the first fruit of the season. It dovetails with strawberry season. So in this part of the world you see strawberry rhubarb pie.
We’re developing a rhubarb syrup. I thought we’d share the recipe here and invite you to try it at home and give us your feedback. Serve with carbonated water and ice. Or do what Ayr does and make a cocktail with rhubarb and gin. The juniper in gin opens up all kinds of tropical notes in rhubarb.
You’re getting restaurant quantities here. We recommend scaling it down. Unless you’re having a ton of people over for rhubarb cocktails, which is not a bad thing. Recipe after the break. (more…)
I’ve been writing a few posts about ceilings lately.
Jinhee, one of our architects, was in the other day and had this amazing idea. I’ve mentioned before that we’ve been trying to figure out what to do with the ceiling of our restaurant in Brookline Village. Jinhee looked at it and decided we could open up a portion of the drop ceiling to expose the wood beams above.
This picture shows Rachel, who will be running this restaurant looking at the ceiling with me. We’re trying to get our heads around this change. It’s really exciting, and changes the feeling of the space. We were thinking to add wood panels. But now we’ll be removing material, exposing what is behind, instead of adding material and hiding what is behind. This is much more Clover.
I visited Mystic Woodworking the other day. Jim, the guy on the right of this shot, was my tour guide and co-owns the company. Their operation was staggering. He brought me through building after building after building. They had an airplane hangar building the set for the Boston Ballet Nut cracker. The ENTIRE SET. That’s like 5 stories high. They had packing boxes for the chandeliers that were taller than I am. They do metal work, and wood work, and have the largest water jet cutter I’ve ever seen. It was really amazing.
The wood there on the floor is going to be the counter tops for our restaurant in Burlington, MA. I’m really excited about these pieces. See that beautiful streak down the middle. That’s sometimes called heartwood. It’s probably discolored due to the age of the tree. This is from a silver maple tree.
Jim and I were going back and forth on the wood type. He couldn’t believe it was maple. I was pretty sure Berkshire Lumber (the place I bought it) said that’s what is is. He showed me how heavy maple is, and there’s no question, this wood wasn’t nearly as heavy. But I was pretty sure it was maple. I looked it up after and turns out Silver Maple and a few other varieties of Maple are considered “soft maple.” They ARE lighter weight.
This post is a bit like the last. That’s our ceiling framed up. It’s our only ceiling. It’s just above the entrance to the bathrooms.
How can that be the only ceiling? Well we have this crazy wood paneled sculpture sort of thing enveloping the back area. And there’s going to be bare ceiling for the rest of the restaurant, just painted out, but bare. Minimum materials. Maximum height. Maximum transparency.
That’s the framing for the back wall. It’s the only wall we’re adding to the entire restaurant. Why any walls? that’s an emergency exit back there and it needs to have a certain “hallway” for access. We’re putting doors on the mop closet and dry goods room there.
We're here to make food you love, the kind you talk about and look forward to eating. The Clover Food Lab is serving up a new type of fast food. This food is local, it’s just-cut, when we can it is organic.
You can learn more about
our origins,
our food,
our mistakes,
and everything else about us at this website.
Ayr Muir
Founder and CEO
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