July 22, 2015

Clover Kosher Update

IMG_3532

We’ve done few things in Clover’s history that have generated as much excitement as our recent move to Kosher certification.

Last week we invited you to see BLV, HSQ, and KND get Kashered. Soon we’ll have open Kashering of HFI and BUR. And then we’ll be 100% Kosher. It’s really exciting for us.

Let’s call this post a FAQ on Clover Kosher. I’m getting more questions than I can properly answer, and our employees are doing their best to field the questions, but some of these are really technical. One of our employees accidentally said we were KVH certified (which we’re not, KVH is a different Kosher certification than we have) and it caused a small flurry of notes, including some not super friendly public notices from KVH. I understand, there are strong emotions around Kosher certification and it’s important that information is clear (and correct!). Sorry about that. We’ve since corrected the error in communication.

What is your certification?

We are certified Kosher by Rabbi Dolinger

Why did Clover pursue Kosher certification?

I want Clover to be accessible to as many people as possible. I used to work with somebody who kept Kosher and was amazed how hard it was. I’m happy that we can make it easier for people to maintain their religious convictions. Minutes after our first Kashering post Tamara (my former colleague) wrote me a note. I couldn’t be happier to be able to take this step.

Are you (Ayr) Jewish?

I’m not.

Which locations are Kosher?

We’re working towards all locations, but haven’t finished the process as of today (7/21/15). Currently CloverHSQ, CloverKND, CloverHUB, CloverBLV, all Clover trucks in operation, and our commissary are certified. We’re working to get CloverHFI and CloverBUR added to that list.

Is your cheese kosher?

We’ve followed Rabbi Dolinger’s guidance and disposed of (donated) all non-kosher products before the Kashering (mostly vinegar). The cheese we use is from Grafton VT. It uses a vegetarian rennet. It is not certified Kosher, but Rabbi Dolinger is considering it Kosher. This is where I’m not an expert. I know some don’t consider any cheese Kosher unless it is certified, vegetarian rennet or no. Most Kosher cheese tastes horrible (sorry, but it’s true). So this is a challenging issue.

It’s a challenging issue and a really great opportunity for Clover and the broader community. We’re having conversations with Grafton and they are going to get certified Kosher cheese for us. They may move their entire operation to certified Kosher. I think that’s really cool and great for those in the Kosher community who love tasty cheese. And it could be great for Grafton, a small business that we love. I don’t think that change would happen without progressive and positive people trying to make change. We’re thankful to be working with Rabbi Dolinger.

What is Kashering?

It means the process of making something Kosher.

Is Kosher a physical thing? Or is it a religious thing?

I’m probably not the best to answer this one either, but from my observation it seems to be both. It’s definitely physical, Chris and I were up to midnight helping Kasher the HUB. But clearly it’s a religious process and definition.

Why is there so little Kosher certified anything in Boston?

Well… we tried for years to get Kosher certification. We hit dead ends. So for years, despite our best efforts, the only path we had to Kosher certification required we have a Rabbi on staff for all hours of operation at all locations. Since Kosher is a determination by a Rabbi there is variation in how different Rabbis determine what is Kosher. This requirement was so onerous for us that there was really no way we could possibly make it happen. I expect others have found the same thing.

I had a conversation with Grafton earlier today and they told me they have been interested in pursuing this in the past but that the certification process has been far to expensive.

So it’s a funny thing. It’s a religious process, but it’s also a business. And the cost and requirements are at the discretion of the Rabbi who stands to benefit from the business. In some ways that makes a ton of sense. But it obviously can lead to situations in which few if any can pursue the certification, regardless of their positive intentions.

Is it a pain to be Kosher? Isn’t that an operational headache?

There are requirements of us that have an impact on our operations. But none of these are things we wouldn’t want to be doing anyway.

For example we can’t have employee food in our kitchens. But guess what, Massachusetts Health Code requires the same thing!

The most unusual requirement for us is that if a pilot light goes out we have to have an observant Jew relight. And we have a special “olympic torch” (a fryer at HUB) that was lit by Rabbi Dolinger, we use that “torch” for all lighting.

Recent Posts

September 18, 2023
One of the dishes in our upcoming Apple Box is wobbly, sweet, eat-with-a-spoon, kind of ugly, and so yummy. It’s Baked Apples. We used to make them every morning at the original Harvard Square restaurant. It would fill Holyoke Street with the smell of brown sugar and cinnamon and the first apples of fall. Turns out their history in Harvard Square is even older than our restaurant – our favorite former grocery store owner Tony Russo remembered going to diners in Harvard Square for them when he was a kid. Along with everything you need to make baked apples, the Apple Box has my favorite…
September 12, 2023
If you’ve seen a Clover truck out of the corner of your eye, your eyes are not deceiving you. We’ve been popping up at select events around the city. This photo is of an event at a farm, The Food Project in Lincoln…
September 6, 2023
Sara (kitchen) here. Ok, we haven’t started offering ice cream at the restaurants but there IS a way to get ice cream from Clover in your own kitchen. If you head to the Meal Box area of our app before Thursday at 5pm, you can order a No-Churn Corn Ice Cream Kit. I’ve never had too much of a sweet tooth, but I’ve always had a soft spot for ice cream. I’ve been making a lot of it at home this summer, and I always bring some in for the Clover team. When we were thinking about a corn box, I couldn’t stop thinking about corn ice cream.
September 1, 2023
Clover folks sure like the yellow stuff: Our Corn Box sold out in just 36 hours! Wow. If you’re still hankering for something to husk, fear not: we just opened up a 2nd delivery date: Sat, 9/9. If you haven’t tried one of these yet, the Corn Box is the latest in our home delivery meal box series spotlighting the best of seasonal produce. We work with our network of New England farms to pinpoint exactly the right weekend to deliver veggies at their freshest, and we do most of the prep for you…
August 28, 2023
Clover is now on DoorDash and Uber Eats. Pre-pandemic we were really wary of these platforms – they take big fees from restaurants and can cause a lot of harm to smaller operators, and we were worried about people first encountering us on a third party platform, rather than in-person (we love to talk to you!) But then we talked to a few industry friends and we found out…
August 24, 2023
We’ve been fielding so many sweet emails and DMs asking if the Zucchini is back. And finally we can say it is! This sandwich is one of my favorites we do all year. There’s a thick slice of glazed tofu from Heiwa in Maine. Basil mayo (Red Fire Farm basil). Fresh raw zucchini we cut into half-moons. Snappingly fresh corn (right now it’s coming from Verrill Farm). And shiso which is a Japanese herb that tastes like a cross between mint and basil, with slight licorice-y notes. It’s sweet/salty/fresh and (I think) super addictive.
August 24, 2023
Our Clover restaurant at Copley Square, the one we call CloverBBY (Back Bay) is closing immediately. I’m pretty sad and really shook up, and just bummed. This is the second Clover we’ve ever closed, the first was in Brookline Village. That one was peaceful. This one is violent and really stressful. We signed the lease for CloverBBY in 2019, taking over from a failed outpost of Honeygrow. The space was newly renovated, our neighbor Dig Inn was doing $5m a year in sales (or so we’d been told) and we all expected this to rocket to be our busiest, highest volume restaurant ever…
August 13, 2023
Fresh tomatoes, baked tomatoes, tomato jam, tomato butter, tomato soup. What is your favorite way to eat tomatoes? We’ve been playing with the idea of doing meal boxes dedicated to ONE seasonal veggie/fruit – but with tons of different recipes you can make at home. Now that tomatoes are coming in from Red Fire and Next Barn Over, we’ve dreamed up our first annual Tomato Box.
August 1, 2023
August 15th is Julia Child’s Birthday, and the Clover kitchen crew decided there was no more fitting way to honor our former neighbor than with a French-inflected meal box packed with Julia-inspired fare.. Our neighbor? Yes! Julia lived in Cambridge about one mile down the road from CloverHUB and shot her famous TV shows right from the kitchen of her house—but don’t try to pop in now: her kitchen was disassembled piece by piece and shipped off to the Smithsonian. Inside the Julia Child’s Birthday Box you’ll get…
July 31, 2023
Bowls are now in-testing at two locations: LMA (360 Longwood Ave) and NTV (825 Washington in Newtonville). This is a big change – requiring lots of new containers, prep lists, training. We’ve been seeing people coming in over and over to eat them. We’ve been learning a lot from your feedback and have already made tweaks (more farro in the Romesco Bowl, the addition of a Beet Poke Bowl). Stop in and let us know what you think of these when you try them.
July 17, 2023
In all my years of camping, my favorite campsite was located in a field of blueberries. It wasn’t near a farm or anything, just a field of wild blueberries. With berries available year round at the grocery store, sometimes you can forget that they have a season and it’s right now! Tart, sweet, creamy. Yay Blueberries! We’ve been working on this idea to make…
July 7, 2023
We just announced Clover’s brand new “Celebration Box”—what we call our at-home meal boxes that are worthy of a special occasion with friends or family. As a born-and-bred Yankee, I’m particularly pumped for this one.