20 April, 2018: We’re hosting a Meet the Farmer Night Thursday evening at our Longwood Medical Area location. You’ll be able to meet Julie, Ray, Meryl, Moira, Ari, Tim, Chris, and all the rest of the heroic farmers growing food for our Farmshare program this year. Your ticket ($5) includes local beer, snacks, and a chance to ask farmers any… Read More
20 April, 2018: I snapped this picture 5 years ago on our opening day in Brookline Village. I remember feeling such love and excitement from the community there. People were coming up to us and just saying thank you. And while that feeling hasn’t subsided at all, today’s the last day of our restaurant in Brookline. Our lease came up… Read More
3 April, 2018: This may just look like Ayr photographing a paper bag, but it really represents a whole journey into menu photography. A couple months ago, when we were in the middling stages of readying our order-ahead app for public release, we knew we needed to do something drastic to upgrade the look of the whole app. Menu photos!!… Read More
5 August, 2008: I don’t know which if any of these we’ll end up using, but these are my first take at defining Clover’s colors. I spent too much time looking through aisles of stores, looking through magazines, etc. before I realized that the proper place for Clover’s inspiration to come from is nature. And there are some fantastic references… Read More
26 March, 2018: The first sign of spring in New England isn’t asparagus, or strawberries. It’s Parsnips. But not just any parsnip. These are Spring Dug. This time of year, Michael Docter and his crew at Winter Moon Roots brave the cold to harvest a special crop. Michael knows that something magical happens when you leave parsnips underground all winter in… Read More
21 March, 2018: We made a video sharing our recipe for fresh soup stock. I love fresh stock. I first learned how to make it from our chef Rolando who learned how to make it from Thomas Keller at the French Laundry. It’s the building block for every soup we make here at Clover. Stock only takes 1 hour (and most… Read More
9 March, 2018: Back in August 2016 Vincenzo told me he could shape up a labor budget that was out of whack much more quickly than we had expected. I told him that if he could do it in 2 weeks I’d take him to a Japanese Whiskey Distillery. He delivered. And it took me a bit of time to… Read More
8 March, 2018: I will pay, out of my own pocket, to send Boston MBTA leadership to Japan to do a “riding tour” if they can come back and make real changes to our transit system here in Boston. ‘Nuff said. Read More
3 April, 2009: We weren’t too far into our Autumn open before we were receiving requests for catering. We weren’t ready then (we had the basic menu to figure out), but now we’re turning that corner. So here Chris and I are prepping for a tasting. Looks like we got the gig, so now we have 5 or 6 (TBD)… Read More
7 March, 2018: I’m not sure this one can make it to Clover. Because I’m not sure many Boston customers would love it. But Clementine (yes, the Clementine in the photo of me buying our first truck) LOVES mochi. I’m right there with her. It’s delicious. Here she is eating some that was just grilled over a bbq and smothered… Read More
7 March, 2018: I have a video of Blue Bottle pour over circa 2003 at the Ferry Building in SF. It’s awesome, and raw. Huge line. Sternos and cheap kettles. 40g coffee per 8oz cup (an enormous dosing). A spoon stirring the grounds. Splashes and spills. And I’ve watched Blue Bottle evolve and expand. I’d heard that Tokyo was a… Read More
6 March, 2018: Japanese pickling is so different from what I’m used to in the USA. We visited Kyoto where pickles are one of the most important regional items. Pickles were everywhere. In the US almost 100% of pickles we consume are made from vinegar brine. If you’ve ever had a true “sour” or “half-sour” pickle, that’s salt brine, as… Read More
6 March, 2018: Ever since I first learned of Japanese tea ceremony I’ve wanted to experience one. Clementine and I found a tea house in the middle of a garden in Tokyo and it was AWESOME! There are a bunch of details to the etiquette that they patiently taught us. The simplified version is (a) eat the sweet first and… Read More
24 July, 2014: This happened Tuesday night. After our delayed hearing our application for a 24 hour license was heard and approved. That’s right. We’re going to open the first 24 hour Clover, and it will be the only 24 restaurant in Cambridge. We’re really excited. We’re used to unanimous support. Every hearing we’ve had since I started Clover and asked… Read More
2 March, 2018: If you’ve been reading the blog lately or hanging out with me you know I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about packaging recently. Packaging is easily the most hairy operational issue we face with the Clover App rollout. And while it pales in comparison to the positive impact we have by excluding meat from our… Read More