May 18, 2023

Cheesy grits are back!!!

I used to eat Cheesy Grits almost every morning, and if you were eating with us around 2017, I bet you did too. We took our Plimoth-ground-grits off the menu for a little while, but now they’re back at all locations (except for the HUB for the time being). Stop in for breakfast during the next 2 weeks – we’re aiming for these to be hot and ready at 8am and we’ll be selling them til they’re out. The staff has been waking up extra early and adding a lot of extra whisking to their mornings, so we’d love to hear what you think. If you’ve never had our Cheesy Grits before, here are some things you should know….
1. GRITS = CORN
Grits are made by grinding up dried corn! Then once you’re ready to make grits, you boil the dried corn until it gets silky smooth. At Clover we take them very seriously, whisking intermittently for the 1.5 hours it takes for grits to get perfectly cooked. Grits are great too because they don’t contain wheat, so if you’ve been searching for a less gluten-y breakfast item you’re in luck here.
 

2. GRITS ARE NOT *JUST* A SOUTHERN STAPLE

 

Here on the lands that later became Massachusetts and Rhode Island, Indigenous people were farming and grinding corn to make a type of coarse corn porridge known as sampe.

3. WE GET OUR CORN FRESH FROM PLIMOTH GRISTMILL

 

We were inspired to make grits after Ayr and his kids visited Plimoth Gristmill where Kim Van Wormer and her team stone-grind heirloom corn on a giant water-powered mill which is an exact replica of what was used back in the 1600s. Here is a video from our field trip to Plimoth Gristmill – you won’t believe how cool this machine is!

4. PEOPLE LOVED CHEESY GRITS AT CLOVER!

 

In fact the reason we pulled grits off the menu was not because they weren’t selling well, it was because of a very basic operational issue: burner space! We were launching Impossible Meatballs and we needed the pot to simmer marinara and meatballs leading into lunchtime. But Julia, Chris, and Jasper have worked their operational magic and new space has appeared.
5. NO I MEAN IT, PEOPLE REALLY LOVED CHEESY GRITS AT CLOVER.
Here’s an email from Anne, a customer, begging us to bring back the grits after that fateful day when they went away.
Hi, Clover team:
My subject line says it all. I’ve been getting the cheesy grits and egg (CG&E) at the Kendall Square store a couple of times a week. I LOVE the CG&E and have recommended it to others — and I miss it a bunch. (Did I mention I love it?)  Can you bring back CG&E?  I’m a fan of the breakfast sandwiches and oats, too, but oh, those cheesy grits…
Hi Anne : ) if you’re still reading, we’d love to buy you your first cheesy grits! Reach out : ) And if you’re not Anne but you missed the grits, get over to Clover in the next 2 weeks!

Recent Posts

June 10, 2023
We’ve been playing around with getting one in-season veggie and threading it throughout the meal boxes for that week. Last week we had green garlic from Red Fire Farm so we decided to have a little Green Garlic Fest. If you had a box last week you may have seen green garlic in a bunch of different ways: roasted for tacos, sliced and baked as a pizza topping, and folded into pancake batter for pancake day. Just kidding – we have not yet broken our internal rule of  “sweet pancakes” – the pancakes had a green garlic hash alongside : ) Next up: Garlic Scapes. Have you ever had these?
June 7, 2023
For those of you who know, you are probably already clicking into this post to see exactly when you will need to get to Clover. For those who are new to Clover, the Nashville Hot Mushroom is a big deal. It’s an homage to the hot chicken at Prince’s in Nashville, which has its own dramatic origin story. Our version gives you a LITTLE relief from the spice with…
June 7, 2023
Joe (SCL, customer service rep, and our resident coffee fiend) just messaged me that the new Little Wolf coffee was blowing his mind. So I figured I would let all of you know too so you can try it! The coffee is called Laayoo – it’s named after a tree indigenous to the region of Ethiopia where it’s grown by smallholder farmers. Joe tasted notes of Earl Gray tea and funky/smoky/pu-erh tea. Little Wolf folks said it reminded them of rosè wine. So that makes me curious – what do you taste?
May 24, 2023
I recently learned that garlic has 4 stages that it goes through on its journey to become the cured stuff you’re probably used to seeing. This year I learned about Green Garlic. It’s the mild, sweet, un-cured bulb, plus the fresh green shoots. We got our hands on a super limited crop from Red Fire out in Granby, and so we decided to see if we could incorporate it into every single different type of box we make next week…
May 23, 2023
We’ve intentionally steered clear of bowls for a long time. If you see Ayr tomorrow, ask him why : ) Tomorrow (5/24) we’re starting a 2-week test of bowls at CloverNTV, our restaurant in Newtonville. If it goes well, this could represent the beginning of one of the bigger changes our menu has EVER seen. We’re hoping we’ve cracked the code to bowls that are seasonal, carefully-composed, easy to carry, and craveable – all the things we love about bowls, and none of the things we don’t.
May 16, 2023
What is Chris eating? When we toured the field at Siena, the crew was planting dahlia tubers. They get planted in warm soil, will grow all summer and will be ready for harvest in the fall. They reminded us of sunchokes, so we got to talking about whether the tubers are edible and it turns out they are! Are they delicious?
May 15, 2023
Do you want a beautiful box of produce for a fraction of what you’d pay in the grocery store? Do you want to invest in a farm’s success and be with them throughout the harvest season? Do you think you hate eggplants but you’ve just never had a good one? It might be time to look into a CSA (or farmshare).
May 5, 2023
I remember exactly the moment we started celebrating May the 4th (“May the Force” be with you). We were on a planning call about meal boxes and we were talking about how we were going to launch our Taco Tuesday program on Cinco de Mayo (May the 5th). Chris accidentally said “May the 4th” and Ayr said, “May the 4th! We should do a Star Wars Box!”
April 24, 2023
If you’ve been reading for a while you probably know we hate waste. Most of the time, minimizing waste is pretty unglamorous, but every once in a while our mission to reduce waste takes us to some very cool places. I look after Clover’s grocery marketplaces (including our Assembly Row grocery store). A few months ago I noticed that the marketplaces were going through a lot of our paper bags. They’re compostable, which is great. But I think the best bag is one you can use over and over again.
April 22, 2023
Few people know that Clover is environmental activism. This is by design.  And it works. We do these customer surveys and see that 9 out of 10 Clover customers are NOT vegetarian. Yet I’m constantly troubled by conflicting feelings about the approach we’ve taken.
April 10, 2023
Over the next 3 weeks, on a rolling schedule, most Clovers are going to be giving out a free hot or cold George Howell Montecarlos coffee to anyone who stops in between opening and 11 am. No strings— we just want to see you all and talk about coffee!! George Howell’s Montecarlos is a single-origin coffee we love for our pour-overs…
March 30, 2023
Each year, early spring is a busy time at the Clover kitchen because we have 2 of our tastiest boxes, usually back-to-back. For the Passover box, a lot of care goes into the kashering of the kitchen, with Rabbi Dolinger coming in to ensure the box is totally Kosher for Passover via Lighthouse Kosher.