27 August, 2008: This is where I’ve been spending a lot of time lately, Cambridge City Hall. Actually, the building I’m usually visiting is next door, and not as grand. Today I was running between MIT, having met with Richard Berlin, head of dining services, to confirm my spot, and city hall to get my application for food truck license… Read More
27 August, 2008: I did a “tea time” at IDEO Boston today. I guess they take time periodically to step away from work and sometimes have a guest. A friend invited me, and it was a ton of fun. Lots of questions and some really interesting ideas. One of my favorites: put up a sign on the food truck for… Read More
26 August, 2008: Last Friday I went into the Massachusetts Restaurant Association offices in Southborough, MA and took my ServSafe exam ($50). This is an exam that is required for “Foodservice Managers.” At John Olinto’s recommendation I’d skipped the course and opted for the online training. You sign up with the National Restaurant Association, give them $135, and take the course at… Read More
29 July, 2017: I closed the trucks today. Actually, I started this post yesterday, Friday. It’s now Saturday. So I closed the trucks yesterday. I wasn’t ready to post it until today. I’ll write on this more in the future. But for now I wanted to let you all know the basics. CloverDWY (parking at Dewey Square) will remain open… Read More
26 August, 2008: More truck trials. I thought I’d go get the truck inspected. I went to Everett Truck Repair, just around the corner from A1. They did the state inspection and claimed the king pins are bad, so it failed inspection. Turns out this is a $1,350 job ($700 parts, remainder labor). Boy. I don’t think the king pins… Read More
26 August, 2008: OK, so it took showing up at 7am Monday morning with a “Box ‘O Joe,” a dozen assorted donuts, and a lot of energy, but the hood is now done, and done right. It’s not perfect, but better than anything else I’ve seen on a food truck. We got an “inline” fan, which means it fits right… Read More
22 August, 2008: Uggg. So I went to pick the truck up today after leaving it for the week to have a hood installed. You know, those big stainless steel things that restaurants have above cooking areas. Turns out they are very expensive, but required by code, even for our little truck. So this is what disaster looks like. The… Read More
20 August, 2008: Clementine and Ayr with new Clover truck After a ton of research, having visited two dozen different trucks for sale, and heavy negotiations, we have our truck. We bought the truck in Hartford, CT from CanAm, a used truck dealer. It belonged to a fleet of trucks leased out of PA (where most of the trucks are… Read More
1 May, 2010: For some of our paper good we use a supplier called U.S. Foodservice. Don’t worry, we’re not getting any of our veggies from them. But they are the best of the worst when it comes to what’s called “mainstream broadline” goods. We’re talking paper cups, cleaning supplies, fry oil, etc. We’re working to switch all of our… Read More
5 August, 2008: Here’s an excerpt from a recent back and forth with Erik Joule (Erik, hope you don’t mind me posting this). Iteration on the “manifesto.” Clover needs to focus on building a relationship with its audience through its product, its spaces and the way it communicates. Capitalize on the emotional connection from the brand to its audience: Accessibility… Read More
5 August, 2008: This is the second part of the homework assignment Brian gave me. Here are a bunch of magazine ads. I’ve grouped them in two categories: “More of” – the ads that have something to contribute to the process of developing the Clover identity “Less of” – ads with elements we must avoid Read More
5 August, 2008: Brian Collins gave me some homework: Write a couple of paragraphs that describe why Clover needs to exist Clip dozens of magazines and make 2 piles: (a) More of (b) Less of Here’s part one of that homework, the manifesto. It’s funny, I’m reading it now (having written it a month ago) and have a ton of… Read More
5 August, 2008: Here are a bunch of pictures of clovers I’ve collected over the past several months. Read More
10 November, 2008: I stopped by the Hobby shop today to see what they have in the way of metal brakes (bending equipment). I have some work to do on the truck this weekend, and thought this tool might help: Read More
5 August, 2008: Moving away from graphic references to designing the space, here are some thoughts I’ve had about the feelings I’m looking to evoke. I’m really excited about the truck design, because I think a ton of this will come through thanks to John and Jinhee and everyone else helping make it happen. You should expect to see more… Read More