2 July, 2020: I’m going to start writing about some of the nitty gritty of re-opening. First thing I’ve realized? It’s not re-opening at all. Instead we’re launching something new, shooting from the hip, without good guidance or experience. This is true for all restauranteurs right now. Physical layout — changedCustomer flow — changedMenu presentations — changedMenu composition — changedTech… Read More
2 July, 2020: The other day I didn’t say what I wanted to say. I was sitting in my car with music playing. My 13-year-old Clementine who is about to go off to High School next year was helping me set up signs on some of our restaurants for our re-opening. I was teaching her how to use Super 77… Read More
18 June, 2020: We were in hibernation, and now everything feels like it is happening at once, with masks on. A summary of major Clover news: The Clover at Home Box program continues to grow. This coming week we are adding a third pick-up/ delivery day. That will make 3 days/ week: Tuesday 6/23, Thursday 6/25, Saturday 6/27If you’ve ordered… Read More
6 June, 2020: Here I am with Clementine on our first day of deliveries Thanks to everybody who ordered our boxes. We hope you love them. I was out yesterday with my daughter Clementine handling 1 of the 2 routes. Greg (our COO) was doing the other himself. And Jane (Marketing Manager) and Olivia (Food Dev Manager) were manning the… Read More
1 June, 2020: It feels like 29 October 2008 all over again. But this time instead of loading a food truck hoping to sell 20 sandwiches at MIT I’m launching something completely new for Clover: At Home Meal Boxes. Order here! Available for order starting today: Clover Meal Boxes include 3 full meals, 1 hearty snack, and 2 desserts. You… Read More
22 May, 2020: We’re not going anywhere. But there are a lot of things that will have to change to make that statement fact. I thought I’d share with you all what I see in our future, and how it will impact the full community that has allowed Clover Food Lab to exist, our customers, our employees, our suppliers, our… Read More
19 March, 2020: This post isn’t about food. But it’s about some of the (very boring) stuff we need to be doing to protect our ability to make great food in the future. I’ve been spending the majority of the past 2 days contacting vendors and suppliers and service providers. My pitch is consistent: we want to use your service… Read More
18 March, 2020: Those were the words Chris texted me this afternoon. Pictured above is our “cooling” walk-in. It’s a relatively small walk-in fridge with oversized cooling and a series of glass doors. In normal operations it’s in and out. We pack it from the door side and empty it from behind. Sometimes we turn it 3 times a day.… Read More
17 March, 2020: I’m hours and hours into painstakingly reaching out to the HUGE number of services Clover uses to operate. For all it’s the same thing. (1) We want to use these services as soon as we re-open, (2) we DON’T want to lose all our data and set-up all over again, (3) We CAN’T pay while we have… Read More
16 March, 2020: We all spend so much energy figuring out how to get from where we are to the next place. And at Clover that feels like such an imperative. Clover is trying each day to solve this existential challenge we face: Global warming. But now we’re facing a different more immediate challenge in COVID-19. We’re going to be… Read More