17 November, 2018: I got a call from another restauranteur the other day asking if our coffee racks were custom, who designed them, and whether I could share the contact of the builder. Yikes! I’m always wishing Clover inspires. It’s pretty exciting when we see bits of Clover in other restaurants. Especially when those changes (e.g., sourcing the eggs we… Read More
13 November, 2018: We want to help meat lovers become vegetable lovers. Tofu isn’t the best way to do that. At least that’s what we’ve found in the past. We had a few failed tofu items on the menu. I like tofu. I grew up with it. But for many it’s just a 3rd rail. We’ve tried it in spreads… Read More
29 October, 2018: I’m not too proud to admit I feel burnt. It feels sort of like post-exams from when I was in school, sort of like post-race or game. Physical and mental. And I think everybody who worked at Clover today is feeling this way. But I’m the one responsible for what was a pretty rough day. A few… Read More
23 October, 2018: October 2005 I ate at L’As Du Fallafel. I didn’t know it at the time but this experience became the prototype for Clover’s most successful sandwich. This past weekend I took a trip to Paris with my father and my son (Blue, above). We’re approaching Clover’s 10th birthday (10/29/18) and I thought it would be fun to… Read More
18 October, 2018: For years I kept this little secret to myself. When I quit my job I didn’t think my idea that became Clover would work. I thought I’d fail. I’d been dreaming about a company that would help meat lovers become vegetable lovers. But I couldn’t find any examples of people who had pulled this off. I didn’t… Read More
16 October, 2018: The past 3 Sunday evenings I’ve gotten a knock on the door. It’s Paw Paw for Clover! I get bushels of paw paw delivered at my house. I put them in the back of my car and bring them into Clover. And we’ve been sampling them at the restaurants. Look for them today. Paw what? If you… Read More
12 October, 2018: Setting up our own pita oven was sooooo painful. But we knew we could serve better tasting pita than what we were buying from Brooklyn and NJ. Why did we think we could do a better job? I’m starting to understand flavor as nutrition. And we can make more flavorful bread by using more nutritious ingredients. We can… Read More
5 October, 2018: On our order system each item has a short acronym. So if you work at Clover and take a lot of orders you start to get to know the Chickpea Fritter as CHK and the Japanese Sweetpotato Sandwich as JSP. This past week the Japanese Sweetpotato crushed the Chickpea Fritter Sandwich in sales. And even the poor… Read More
1 October, 2018: All year people ask me when we will launch the Brussels Sprout Sandwich. But right now it’s different. People are getting emails from our competitors telling them that Brussels are on the menu. They are hitting instagram feeds. Brussels aren’t in season yet, not in New England. It’s really confusing when we’re approaching autumn and you get… Read More
1 October, 2018: I’m talking at Harvard tonight as part of the Food and Science class lecture series. I’m super excited. I’ve been in the audience for these lectures for years. They started in the early days of Clover and Rolando, our chef at the start, turned me onto them. If you’re interested in joining the lecture is open to… Read More