Suppliers

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Those are Clover’s carrots

17 July, 2010 in Suppliers, Uncategorized by lucia | 3 comments

See the bags of carrots that guy is holding? Those are headed to Clover. I went down to Rhode Island to see how some of our food gets distributed. Distribution is an area you don’t hear about much. You hear about farmers, you hear about restaurants. But distribution, ordering, deliveries is something we deal with every day. (I think Brian could could have written an entire post on trying to make sense of the woman who mans the phones after business hours at Russo’s, but that’s another story.)

We get some of our produce, and the Narrangansett yogurt you’ve been eating in the mornings, through a pretty slick nonprofit called Farm Fresh Rhode Island. I worked with them one morning to get a huge volume of stuff from farmers to restaurants.

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Check out that cup

1 May, 2010 in Branding, Packaging, Suppliers by ayr | No comments

For some of our paper good we use a supplier called U.S. Foodservice. Don’t worry, we’re not getting any of our veggies from them. But they are the best of the worst when it comes to what’s called “mainstream broadline” goods. We’re talking paper cups, cleaning supplies, fry oil, etc. We’re working to switch all of our paper packaging to another (local) supplier, but that’s another post.

Anyway, US Food sometimes screws up shipments, everybody does. This time they delivered these cups. I called and sorted it all out, but they offered me 50% off the cups or replacement. I took the 50% off. As I see it you all are having to deal with ugly cups, but we just saved a bunch of money I can use to pay employees, or improve your food. Here’s hoping US Food has more screw ups going forward.

Ecco coffee

14 March, 2010 in Menu, Suppliers, Team by ayr | No comments

My expectations were low. Ecco was bought by Intelligentsia recently. They’re best known for “seasonal coffee,” something I think is marketing hype. I don’t like the name. I don’t like the packaging. But everybody was telling me I should check them out, so I made the trip up to Ecco.

Wow, this was an experience I’m not going to forget. Andrew, the founder, was amazing. He and his head roaster, Drew, took a very generous chunk out of their day with me. We had a great time. And afterward I felt as though I’d eaten a meal. Some of the coffees were light, like appetizers, some satisfying like a main course, others felt like wine, and one in particular felt like dessert. A flowery yummy dessert.

I loved their philosophy, and approach. But above all, the coffee just tasted delicious. Yum.

Brooke and my sister got to listen to me say yum about 1000 times on the trip back to SF.

We’re going to be sharing these coffees at the truck. Really really special.

Stumpy (Portland, OR)

12 March, 2010 in Design, Menu, Suppliers by ayr | 1 comment

What did I love so much about Stumptown? First, the door to their roastery was wide open, welcoming us in. Everybody in there was hustling, and there were a bunch of folks working. The place was stacked, floor to ceiling. The roaster wasn’t huge, but is was working non-stop. We learned they fire it up at 6am and shut it down at 8pm every day.

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Just don’t add milk or cream

11 March, 2010 in Menu, Suppliers by ayr | No comments

While in LA we visited Intelligentsia’s roastery. This isn’t their primary roastery (Chicago). But they’ve been at it for a few years and use this facility to service the West Coast.

This visit was a ton of fun for us. The classic quote from the trip: “Adding any dairy product is a corrective action.” In other words, from their point of view milk and cream only belong in bad coffee.

At Clover we’re loving our quality coffees black, but don’t worry, our milk and cream aren’t disappearing anytime soon.

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Intelly Venice

11 March, 2010 in Design, Operations, Suppliers by ayr | 1 comment

The lists vary slightly, but talk to coffee folks and the following will typically show up on lists of “top roasters in the US”

  • Stumptown (Portland)
  • Intelligensia (Chicago)
  • Verve (Santa Cruz)
  • Barefoot (San Jose)
  • Ritual (San Francisco)
  • Four Barrel (San Francisco)
  • George Howell (Acton, MA)
  • Barismo (Arlington, MA)
  • Barrington Coffee Roasters (Lee, MA)

Stumptown has some crazy status that I’ll admit I don’t fully appreciate. They’ve been at it for a while (10 years +) and have a ton of respect from new and old roasters. Their coffee is really yummy and we loved the folks there (more later).

This post is about Intelligensia, or at least their most recent flagship shop. They must have hired some MBAs recently. Intelly started in Chicago but are on a crazy expansion path.

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Narraganset creamery

25 February, 2010 in Menu, Suppliers by ayr | 2 comments

IMG_2692

Our yogurt supplier, Narraganset Creamery, makes up some of the best yogurt in the Northeast. The only other producer that I’d put at their quality would be Sidehill Farm back from W. Mass (where I grew up). Sidehill is great, but they don’t really sell around here.

What’s good yogurt? Mostly it has to do with freshness, and lack of additives — stabilizers, preservatives, etc. The cultures are happy and active. It comes through in the taste, and also in the texture. You’ll notice if you get to breakfast early in the morning that we always stir the yogurt quickly 40-50 stirs before serving anybody. This creates a silky texture, it’s really beautiful.

If you haven’t had our yogurt it can be found with granola and seasonal fruit compote every morning.

The picture above is from a recent trip to Narraganset. It’s a huge operation, and they make a lot of cheese. More pictures after the break.

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