I was walking out of HSQ this evening, I’ll admit, a lot exhausted, somebody said “Ayr?” My first reaction was that this was another reporter. Sorry, Charlie if you saw a bit of anxiety on my face. I’ve been burnt by the press recently. I said hi. We shook hands. He introduced himself. He told me he thinks he might have been one of the people who got sick. Oh wow, I thought. I started to say, “man… so so sorry” and he stopped me and said something like “no no, I love your food. and I ate with you after that.” Sorry Charlie if I’m quoting you wrong, I’m a little tired as I said.

Turns out he literally just dropped off a test sample at Harvard Medical. And we really don’t know if he has this case of Salmonella, or something else completely unrelated. But I feel bad no matter what, right? It’s a human response. And he just starts to tell me how great he thinks Clover is, how he came in one time late at night and was all “Aww, vegetarian food???” (he’s not vegetarian, like 90% of our customers). And then ate it and fell in love. He kept telling us “you can’t believe how an amazing meal can get you through late night study sessions.” He looked forward to our meals and can’t wait for us to open again. I told him I was meaning to write a post about our customers, in particular those who may have been sick. He said he wouldn’t mind posing for a photo.

Guys, you’re really amazing.

I don’t know what else to say. I had another customer who wrote in THE SAME EMAIL that she thought she might have gotten sick eating with us during the exposure dates, and then, one paragraph later, asked if we could open in her home town.

Guys, you’re sort of crazy : )We love you.

That’s what makes even these tough times really worth every bit of sweat. It’s awesome. I feel so lucky. So sorry to any of  you who may be sick, whether or not it turned out to have anything to do with Clover. That’s just not fun. One of the most important things I’ve learned in the entire investigation was that nobody was hospitalized. At first I imagined all these sick people in the hospital. So glad you’re all OK. We’re working our asses off to figure out if there’s anything we can do.

If you’re a Charlie please reach out to us. Even if you have nothing nice to say. We still want to hear you. The state will not share your names, which I think makes sense, but it means we don’t know you. info@cloverfastfood.com