You’re just looking at the picture and you know I’m getting excited. It’s not the first time I’ve posted an image of home-grown technology. I need to put a new category on the website for this type of thing.

So what you’re looking at here is the invention of Mick, a new friend who is helping his wife Diane get a cupcake truck running here in Boston. You can check them out alongside us at SoWa on Sundays (but not this Sunday because the market is closed for the holiday).

That’s a cooler filled with ice. And a fan. And an exhaust stack. And a car battery. The fan blows air through the ice, the ice cools the air, the cool air keeps the cupcakes from melting. Isn’t that awesome?

So what did you all think about the tables and chairs? The Greenway has these sweet tables and chairs for Dewey Sq. Only problem is we’re often so busy getting your food ready we don’t have time to put them out.

I was around the other day and made sure every single chair and table got out before lunch. If you all like this set-up let us know and we’ll try harder to set them up.

This was spotted on the most recent trip to my furniture maker, the ones making the furniture for the restaurant in Harvard Square. Isn’t it brilliant?

We wanted to do all custom furniture, but our budget was very tight. My architects had worked with a guy they thought would be perfect. I saw this contraption and knew I was in the right place. I’ll say it again, isn’t that brilliant?

I love how limited resources combined with necessity can spurn creativity and invention. This is at the core of the Yankee ethic that I love so deeply. Need a dust pan? Slice that bucket in half, nail it to a piece of wood. Know what, it’s re-using without being “green,” and it’s cheap without being from Wal-Mart. Isn’t that brilliant?

We’re going to grow a giant wall of ivy in the restaurant. Get it, Harvard Square, Ivy. I have a feeling this is going to be an adventure. We might even screw it up : )

Our architects have been playing with scaffolding designs. Here are some prototypes they put together at their offices in Brooklyn. Well, their offices aren’t out there on the roof, but you know what I mean. That’s Chris, shocked that I’m taking his picture again. Did I mention that he’s camera shy? Get used to it big guy.

We’ve had a few lucky breaks in the past few weeks. As demo has been happening we’re uncovering aspects of the building we didn’t know anything about.

Early on we thought we would strip the carpet off of the floors and polish the concrete below. Then we found what we thought was tile under the carpet. So we though we’d have to do tile on the floor (not my favorite, but OK). Then we found it wasn’t tile at all, but pavers. This is really exciting. #1: the cost will be much lower. All we have to do is remove the carpet, clean these up, and seal them. And #2: we get to re-use existing material reducing our environmental impact. And #3: these pavers continue out the door. Somebody at Harvard was telling me that’s because this used to be outside before the Holyoke Center completed construction.

So we’re going to be able to achieve this great effect where you enter the store from the street walking on the same surface outside as you are inside. I’m really excited. We want to bring the outside, bring the sidewalk in. Couldn’t be better for a company born on the street.

Chris and I went to Berkshire Products the other day. Those of you who’ve been with us since the beginning remember at least 2 other posts about Berkshire Products. If you’re new, use that handy search function on the side there.

The board you’re looking at here is 19′ long. They have this warehouse full of these things. They are just awe-inspiring. We picked out some spectacular red oak. We’re hoping it’s from New England. They don’t track exactly, but they did say most of the Red Oak is from New England.

Our Convection Oven comes stocked with 3 shelving racks, this is were we heat the bread, and warm our BBQ.  Reaching into the  400 F oven is like playing OPERATION as a kid, if you touch the side, you get zapped, but on the truck your left with a burn mark.  Next time you’re at the truck check our fore-arms. Too many of us are branded. It became worse with the new DWY truck because we’re parked on a slant and the d#$% door keeps slapping shut while our arms are in the oven.

This is my solution. Antoria started calling it the “ouch guard” and it stuck. Velcro is the next best thing to duct tape.  This now keeps the door secure when it opens and has prevented less burns.

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’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…