You’re looking at a prototype of our stools for the restaurant. Ignore the blue, that’s just tape. We’re really excited about these. There simple, shockingly strong and durable, and not going to cost much.

Read on to learn more about the development

Can’t remember how we decided to do the stools custom. I think it was an idea I liked. I am convinced we can make a better stool at a lower price. (Does that attitude sound familiar?)

Stool 1

This is where it started. I wasn’t sure any of these were simple enough. But I thought we had something to work with stool #2.

stool 2

This was the next stage. The shape wasn’t there, but the color idea was really interesting to me. John and Jinhee and Peter (our architects) thought you could make the chairs feel like they were floating with clever application of color. The black was a bit much, but I saw this could be going somewhere.

stool 3

At this point we were getting pretty close. I talked to SSD about the design and asked if we could get a prototype made. The prototype rocked. And we’re off…

Barth from Barrington Roasters gave me some of these coffee sacks the other day. They’re sort of a waste product in their business. These are the sacks the green beans arrive in.

I was pretty excited about it. The sack is actually the sack our coffee, the stuff we serve you, comes in. And I love this kind of thing, I’m always trying to figure out how to re-use cheap things (e.g., milk-crates) and save money that I can spend on better food for you all.

This sack had me puzzled though, didn’t know what to do with it. Then it came to me, these sacks are the perfect protectors for our new whiteboard signs. These are special signs, some sort of enameled metal. They tell me they will not show “ghosting” as the previous ones did. We’ll see. But they do scratch, and what better than a perfectly sized burlap sack to protect them?

Two of these were sitting in Toscanini’s window the other day. Rolando and I were stopped in our tracks. That’s a lot of raspberries. Aren’t they beautiful? My cell phone picture isn’t the best, but wow, you get the idea.

You may not all realize how unusual this sort of thing is for foodservice. There are fresh, not frozen.

Here’s hoping Gus moves more of his ingredients and prep closer to that big window on the sidewalk so that we can all see what’s going on.

Our sandwich boards are getting a bit ratty aren’t they? I need to find a more durable solution.

That said, we really don’t want them to look like the example on the left above, or like anything that would ever be anywhere near a Starbuck’s. Don’t get me wrong, I’d really like them to be cleaner than they are.

That said, I’m very proud that we write on our boards daily. They’re far from perfect, some have even complained about my handwriting. But they reflect where we are on a day to day basis. That’s the timescale on which our food is made, that’s the timescale our communications should obey.

There’s an IAP design class at MIT that’s working with Clover for one of their projects. I’m hoping it’s going to be their most memorable project of the class. But I’m not doing a great job so far. I didn’t promote the class last week (TLC edged them out), and I was late for our first meeting today. I’d gotten held up at the bank, more on that later.

Our goals for packaging are simple: least negative impact to the environment while delivering a quality experience to customers. Secondarily we’re focused on aesthetics of course.

So I thought I’d post here a quick overview of the packaging we’ve used to date, with some comments. Those who read us often know:

(a) We’re excited about the idea of eliminating trash cans from our restaurants and moving to 100% compostable packaging

(b) I’m skeptical about the environmental benefits of re-usable packaging

Keep reading after the break if you’re interested in more detail about who we’ve worked with to date:

Like everything on the truck we’re trying to get the most learning for the least cost. So from the beginning we’ve been using a variety of packaging suppliers to get a sense of their capabilities. We’ve used:

- HT Berry

- US Foodservice

- Sysco

- Restaurant Depot

- Continental Packaging

- Vegware

- John Calarese and Company

- Mansfield paper

These folks, with the exception of Vegware, have been able to offer us limited products that meet our requirements. What I’ve found is that most of the major suppliers offer a few things that are “green” (e.g., clamshell boxes made from bamboo), but make it near impossible to go “green” across your line-up.

This tomato plant and flat leaf parsley have taken root at our loading dock. Pretty amazing. Little seeds from our tomatoes became lodged between the parking lot and brick wall and now we see the beginings of tomatoes.

I’ve noticed several tomato plants around the truck at 20 Carleton as well. Likely our doing. Just amazing, hunh?

The entry to the truck hasn’t been our highest priority. And while the working space of the truck is polished clean every single day, I’ve neglected the entry-well.

So this weekend I tore out the nasty rubber mat, cleaned it up nicely, and cut up a little astro turf. I think it’ll play a functional role (clean our feet), and supposedly it’s easy to clean/ maintain with a hose. We’ll see.

Now I just need to get some aluminum polish and go at that battery access panel with the streaks in the picture. It’s ending : )

So we’re on the way to looking professional. Now that Clover has a logo we’re ready to start putting it on stuff. First you’ll see it on shirts and hats, then the truck, and someday our own packaging.

I’ve got a bunch of ideas I’m really excited about for the T-shirts. We’re going to make them in small batches, all limited edition. So for this first edition we’re making 50. They are all organic cotton. Many are already spoken for (Blue and Clementine are both getting shirts). The crew will be wearing them (which is why the logo is large on the back). We’ll sell a few. Here’s the cool thing: when they sell out that’s it. The next next edition will look different. We’re going to have artists design each edition. And when each sells out that will be it. We will only print each edition once.

So my vision is that we’ll have all of these fantastic interpretations of the Clover brand, as understood by diverse artists, being worn by folks. It’s going to be great. And we’re going to give the artists a ton of freedom. This is one of the reasons we ended up with a logo that’s like a stencil. Super simple logo = lots of fun to be had.

Found this at the local library while playing with Clementine. Playmobile’s version of a clover. Sort of fun, hunh? See, you get a 4 leaf, a 3 leaf, and the flower in there…

Brooke got some shoes for Christmas that came in this awesome box. I think it’s just great.