The same week we welcome one of our original employees back into the fold (Hat), we have to say goodbye to Brian.

This is tough for us all. Brian has been an important part of Clover since the end of last summer. He’s seen us through our first evening service, our first winter, and some tough times when we were covering holes left by unexpected departures. He’s helped us increase the number of people we feed three-fold, and helped us adapt to a new truck.

Brian’s commitment to quality and detail has elevated everyone around him. We’re going to miss him. Brian is going to be kicking it in Denver. We’re not-so-secretly hoping he gets tired of the thin air and finds his way back. Until then, good luck Brian, and we’ll miss you.

In honor of Brian we’re going to be giving away sodas at lunch today. Come on by and lift a bubbly glass.

Meet Bonnibel. She worked in communications until she realized she loved the world of food. Ask her about farming, composting, or food policy, and you’ll get as excited as she is. Bonnibel’s from Texas but her family is Filipino, I’ve been begging her to make us some Filipino food.

Bonnibel’s been with us for two months, but it was just during the last week that she meandered over to the fryer. And if the rest of us are lucky, the fryer is where she’ll stay. Bonnibel rocks the fryer. Even though it’s hot back there, the fry baskets are heavy, and you can hardly hear because the hood is so loud, everything she puts out is hot, perfectly cooked, and ready before we even know we need it.

Bonnibel might have realized she’s going to have a tough time moving away from the fry station. Tonight she started signing emails as “Fryer B.”

This is Anna. We started working at Clover around the same time last summer. She’s probably the fastest sandwich-maker, she’s also great at the expediting position, and she is the creator of some long-running jokes on the truck.

For a while, Anna was the only person who wore size small gloves, and when we would pack the truck at night, we would always forget to pack small gloves. So she would be forced to wear these huge gloves.

Anna is from Seattle, so she grew up with year-round farmer’s markets. Some of the stuff she talks about I haven’t even tasted (like marionberries that only grow in the Pacific Northwest).

Anna’s great with purveyors. Some of you came to Feast Mass the other week. She and I helped plan the food, and she worked with Pretty Things to get us beer and Clear Flour to get us bread. We all think she has a future in that kind of work. Look for her getting involved more in sourcing, purveyors, and maybe some staff field trips (berry-picking?) as summer at Clover approaches.

It was raining really really hard. But we set-up, did our best to write up our board, and had a blast at the Food Project’s City Farm Fest. Big thanks to everyone for inviting us, we were really excited to be included.

Rolando, Nora, and I served up to mostly first time customers, doing our best to answer questions and get food out quickly. Thanks all.

We’re going to be at the Arnold Arboretum tomorrow (Sunday) 10am – 2pm. See you there.

Beth is our first MIT student/ employee. Well, if you don’t include my sister. Beth has been a customer for a while and took us up on the invitation to jump about last week. Of course she did a killer job. Here’s to hoping she’s the first of many. We need help! Oh, did I mention we’re hiring…

Last time around I bought organic hats. They cost me over $20/ hat. This time, trucker hats: $7.56/ hat.

You can have one for $10.

This is the face behind many of the posts you’ve been reading lately. Lucia has pitched in to help me with the blog. She’s also the person behind the Persian New Year soup (one of our most unusual and loved soups) and the new Pimento Sandwich that premiered this week in the seasonal sandwich slot.

Lucia made a big splash at her interview. See if you can find it, it’s a post called “interviewees” from August. When Lucia’s birthday came around the folks we work alongside back at our commissary, Down Home Delivery, made her a cake and got her a present. That’s Lucia, she came carrying cupcakes and giving of herself, and in turn those of us who are lucky enough to know her want to give back.

Recently Lucia has taken up 2 important posts at Clover: (1) she’s helping me keep the blog up to date, and (2) she’s managing the PM shift.

She’s away for 2 weeks, but say hi when she comes back.

Are those shoes purple? Are they sparkling?

Yup, and yup. And check the lace job. Some of you may remember when we ran a survey last month. I wore some flashy shoes from Concepts and asked those of you who took the survey to deliver the secret code: “I like your shoes” if they wanted their reward.

This time around Brian is wearing the shoes. And I’m jealous. Just look at those sparkle! And I never knew you could lace like that. Awesome.

This one has been a long time coming – if you eat with us you probably already know Brian. And if you don’t, you can recognize him easily from now on. He’ll be the one wearing purple, sparkly sneakers (if you took the Clover survey you know why).

Brian comes from the Midwest (Ohio). A series of awesome jobs brought him to Clover. Actually I think Brian has had the most creative jobs of anyone on the truck – from a summer working at a zoo (I think this is true…) to time spent in New York working in a high-end wine cellar. Brian got interested in good food and good drinks early on, and has managed at some really great restaurants, most recently at Craigie on Main.

Brian has been here since September and is running the truck these days, coordinating everything from staffing to ordering food to making sure the lunch rush runs smoothly, and he’s doing a great job keeping on top of the dozens of issues that emerge every day here. We like Brian because of his attention to detail (you’ll never find anything messy or out of order after Brian has worked a shift) and his creative, sometimes shocking re-imaginings of Clover sandwiches (more on that later…)

This is Matt. He joined us about a month ago. Matt went to culinary school in upstate New York but spent the better part of last year doing hard work on farms in Italy and France.

One of the best things about Matt is his impressions of Clover ingredients and people from his hometown (Hyde Park, Mass). Let me explain. We use a crushed red pepper, called aleppo, to season some of our items, like the spicy carrot soup. When Matt found out what it was called he kept laughing. Apparently in his town there’s a guy named Al Leppo who comes to all the baseball games and heckles the players. So whenever we use aleppo, Matt’s impression of Al Leppo comes out.

Matt is leading the morning shift for us these days, getting up at 5 in the morning, loading the truck, driving it to MIT, starting breakfast and working through the lunch rush. He’s doing a great job pulling it all together, and we’re really excited to have him on board.