We work really hard to keep track of the dates and freshness of everything we deal with. But it’s rare that you get to see these out front. I love that somebody started labeling the ketchup. Most companies wouldn’t do this sort of thing. It’s a symbol to me of the back of house/ front of house separation, a dynamic that mirrored in the split/ discord between grocery and distributors, restaurants and supply, etc.

Anyway, I love that you can see this. I’m proud we’re showing it off (but can’t claim credit for the innovation). And I think you should be happy about it too.

We’re really excited. Just when the rain was trying to get us down sunny yellow T-shirts arrived in the mail to cheer us up.

This is phase 3 of the Clover Uniform Plan. We’ve been crafting this move for over a year. Our goal:

- Blue aprons — the color of an apron means something. search our old posts for “aprons” and you can read more about it. short version is that blue means apprentice. We’re making the statement that we’re all learning all the time

- Simple hats that don’t use much material and are comfortable (mesh in summer, knit in winter)

- Simple shirts that work with aprons (image in back), are printed in limited editions (get it, so that they run out occasionally!), and change frequently

- Levis 501 Blue Jeans (final stage) — what is more American, more lasting, less trendy? I grew up seeing my Dad wear Levis. I now wear them. Our truck will wear them. They are perfect. We’re working with Levis (more on this later) to outfit everybody in a raw denim Levi that will age and develop over time

We’re making sure everything we wear is available to our customers. First time around I made the mistake of buying stuff that was too expensive, and not buying ladies T-shirts. We’ve fixed that. Now we’re talking:

- T-shirts $10/ shirt while they last (men’s and ladies sizes available)

- Hats $15/ hat

Someday we’ll add the aprons and blue jeans into the mix…

UPDATE: Due to the rainy day we are keeping this open another day.

NOTE: If you’re having trouble seeing the survey it’s likely because your browser is blocking pop-up windows. The survey service we use changed the way they offer the surveys. I think it’s suppose to be more slick or something, but we’re not very happy. Working on a solution.

Keep reading for survey…

Some of you might be asking yourself what a white kid from the North is doing playing all that blues?

When Erik Joule (Levi’s guy, early advisor and supporter of Clover) and I were discussing branding and retail space early on, and he asked me “what does it sound like?” I was stumped. I’ve always loved music. I used to DJ on the radio, helped run some radio stations, etc. But I was stumped. For all the detail and research I’d put into the company and environment we were creating I’d never thought of what it would sound like.

(more after break)

Those of you who have been with us since the beginning heard us playing different things from the truck kitchen. We tried some folk, some contemporary stuff. The Black Keys’ album Attack and Release felt right. We started evolving around that. It’s important to me that music at Clover is American. That’s a definite defining boundary for us. That gives us pretty broad definition. It needs to be welcoming, I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable. But I don’t want to put anybody to sleep either. No Kenny G (sorry Starbucks). We want a sound that is distinctive. Real songs. Real musicians. A playlist that is curated.

Early I thought we could put together a playlist of local music only. I still fantasize that one day we can. But in the near term that’s just too difficult for me to pull off. I don’t know the current scene that well, and don’t have time to research it at the level I’d want to.

So we landed on Blues. It’s the king of all American music. Something that was born and raised in this country. And I’m learning so much and loving it. I’m first to admit: this music is new to me. It’s not a music I grew up with. But I’m having a ton of fun learning, and can’t wait to know/ listen to more.

Our staff, that’s a different story. My fault. I only put 10 hours of music on the original list and they are getting sick of it. So I just put together a new list today. Now there are 20 hours. I’m hoping everybody loves it.

Uhgg… food trucks.

OK everybody, I owe you all an explanation about why Clover isn’t going to be at the Boston Food Truck festival thing.

It’s really pretty simple: we try not to get involved with events that build other for-profit brands. We’ve turned down a bunch of events you may not know of (including Life is Good festivals, Yelp events, etc.). We’ve been known to support the Food Project, and we’ve done events for a few other cool non-profits. But this thing is CitySearch sponsored. That’s a for-profit company.

That’s all true, but there’s more to it than that. You might have suspected. It’s related to our being generally prickly with the press and refusing to spend money on advertising. We want to grow because we’re building great food and great relationships. Not because we’re promotional, or advertising, or gimmicky, or in the press a lot. And this isn’t just a philosophical stance. It’s a business stance. The brighter the flash in the short term, the weaker the shoring for the long term. And we’re in this for life.

So sorry folks. You can eat us next to Gooseberry’s, and Jose’s, over in Kendall every day, or at Dewey Square. But you’re not going to find us at marketing events.

Have fun. I’m sure the food will be great. Rolando and I may even walk by to check it out.

(btw: if you’re wondering what that picture is, that’s from LA where there is a factory that rolls these trucks out like sausage. I’m not kidding. Wide-eyed entrepreneurs in one side, gussied up trucks, each a different color come out the other side. Look it up. I hear it’s hot and trendy. Called roadstoves.)

You might have seen me the past couple of weeks with my laptop out asking people what their favorite blues songs are.  We have been working really hard to update our playlist, but we are really picky.   If you have any ideas we are looking for upbeat blues songs similar to what we play on the truck.   Write your ideas down on a piece of paper (must be written down)and hand them to me next time you come by the truck!

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…

Exciting news: the MIT whiteboard is finally re-painted. Chris did this late Thursday night. We use this special whiteboard 2-part epoxy. It’s the best solution I’ve found, but it has 2 problems:

(1) It oxidizes in the sunshine (which is why the board looked so muddy)

(2) It loses it’s erasability after about 3 months of use

The solution is that we need to re-finish the board once every 3 months. Last time I painted it? 26th of August (you can look for that post). OK, so we’re not quite hitting once every 3 months. Something to improve.

By the way, the observant out there will notice some other changes. With our whiteboard, as with everything at Clover, we make changes constantly. Early on I tried many different whiteboard presentations. We’ve settled on this for the following reasons:

• Dollar signs are LARGE: what are we doing if we’re not proud of our pricing.
• Least ink to achieve the communication
• Short descriptions encourage (force) conversations with staff
• Date must be there every single day (that’s how you regulars know if the morning menu hasn’t yet been updated)
• Credit cards are represented, but with our hand-drawn graphic. I don’t like co-branding. But you need a way to tell everybody that we take plastic. This is my compromise.
• Operating times are included (this is a relatively new addition)
• Logo is written in permanent marker because it’s the one thing that doesn’t change. This too has evolved over time. Of course we could paint it, and many recommend we do. But the sharpie is more in line with our DIY approach to everything. And it’s cheaper and easier to handle. You’ll notice our re-supply van has the same treatment. I think it’s great.
• You’ll notice the logo is now much larger. I think I like the new size/ position. It gives more room for the stuff that changes. And it’s easier to read for the visually impaired : )

We did it. 3 events in 1 week. Food Project last Saturday, Arboretum last Sunday, and TEDxCambridge today.

Not sure how the money ended up today, but my guess is that we broke even at Food Project, made a little money at Arboretum, and lost some money today. Hopefully not too much. But it was beautiful today, and I was talking at the conference, so made sense. And everybody came out at the sametime so we had to be heavily staffed.

No cops this time around, so we’ll call it a success.

I think the talk is available online somewhere, or will be soon. I rehearsed it once for Clementine, my 4 year old. Hope the final one came out OK.