29 October, 2016: Lucia here. I celebrated Clover’s first birthday back in 2009. And the other month, Rob, who runs Clover Westford, reminded me that Clover turns 8 this year. I thought it would be fun to do a scavenger hunt. So here you are, the Clover 8th birthday scavenger hunt. As you can see from the tweet above, some… Read More
28 October, 2016: Lucia just had her 30th birthday the other day. I took this picture and remembered when Lucia had her 24th birthday at Clover. The folks at Down Home Delivery, a small delivery food business that was sharing space with us at Nuestra (aka Crop Circle Kitchen aka Commonwealth Kitchen), bought her a present and a cake. These… Read More
28 October, 2016: If you’ve been at the restaurants recently you may have noticed we’ve introduced a new icon on the menu screens. We used to use a “delta” to show items that had been added to the menu recently. But I think nobody understands that. Ethan suggested the other day that we update the way we talk about new… Read More
29 May, 2009: T shirts arrived Friday. Here are our first t shirt customers. We’ll be selling these on a first serve basis. We made an edition of 50, and will retire this design after those are sold. Right now we have 18 left for sale. $30 each. Organic cotton, soy inks, made in America. Read More
21 October, 2016: I took this picture of the whiteboard in my office. We were talking about language at our weekly staff meeting. We have 290 employees. And we’re understaffed. When we fix our staffing issues that’s 340 people making Clover a daily reality. Next year this time it’s likely to be over 700. We’re building community. But not just with… Read More
20 October, 2016: As I’ve been building Clover I think about the capabilities we’re building as a business. I think of our company as a complex organism. I imagine myself an observer: what is this organism capable of? We’ve been working really hard on building the ability to respond really rapidly to bumper crops. The idea is simple: when farmers… Read More
18 October, 2016: This post is about something a bit humbling. Clover’s support staff (Finance, HR, Training, Communications, etc.) consists of about a dozen people. Most of whom report directly to me. These are people who in very real ways are dedicating their lives to helping make Clover what it is. I don’t think there is a single member of… Read More
12 October, 2016: I’m preparing some documents for investors and I’ve taken a crack at breaking down our sales mix. This is roughly where it has been for a while, but I’m not sure I’ve shared on the website and I thought you all might be interested. About 93% of our menu items exist on our menu for a limited… Read More
23 April, 2014: I was introduced to Central Square when I came in to see my favorite band in the world: Morphine. They were playing at the World’s Fair in Central Square. I think that must have been 1995. I loved this band. I think Brooke was with me, I think that may have been the summer we first met.… Read More
5 October, 2016: I didn’t really know what Paw Paw were 10 years ago. Then I heard about them and they sounded magical. And it took me 4 years of searching to find somebody in Massachusetts growing them. This is a tropical fruit that belongs to North America. It smells like a tropical fruit. It tastes like a tropical fruit.… Read More
5 October, 2016: Concord grapes are one of my great pleasures in life. When I was a kid my dad had some growing on our greenhouse. I’d watch them grow all summer, from tiny green balls to frosted orbs. I’d taste them too early and spit them out. And then, around this time of year, I’d enjoy their sweet tart burst… Read More
4 October, 2016: We first served donuts way back in 2009 when we were just a single truck over near MIT. Friday I made them myself at LMA and HSQ. First time in a long time. And I had a blast. Rolando, our chef at that time, called on a friend who ran the baking program at Johnson and… Read More
29 September, 2016: I’ve been making pie to entice folks to join yoga classes. Well… if I’m honest it started when Sara Higelin (Director of Training, on the left) declared that she didn’t like pie. She said she hated it. That prompted a pretty heated conversation. I love pie. I want everybody to love pie. And I can be a bit… Read More
12 May, 2009: This is Thomas. He flew in from Paris to interview for a job. I told him before we came that this is a minimum wage position. He said OK. I said it again. He said OK. Thomas has been working at the Rose bakery in Paris (I’ll have to check it out next time I’m there), and… Read More
24 September, 2016: We’re having a Coffee and Donuts event next Friday morning. If you’re in the Longwood Medical Area, come by from 8am-9am. If you’re in Harvard Square, come by from 10am-11am. We are welcoming Sarah Correira, roaster at Speedwell to meet and taste coffee with you all. Sarah spends most of her days knee-deep in green coffee beans. She… Read More