Clover Food Lab

Clover Food Lab

Industry	Food
Founded	September 2008
Headquarters	Cambridge, Massachusetts
Number of locations	2 restaurants, 5 food trucks (as of November 2011[update])
Area served	Boston, Cambridge
Key people	Ayr Muir, founder Ronaldo Robledo, chef
Products	Vegetarian fast food
Employees	70 (October 2011)[1]
Website	cloverfoodlab.com

Clover Food Lab is a food truck fleet and small group of fast food restaurants in Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts that serve local, vegetarian, mostly organic food. It was founded in 2008 by Ayr Muir. Although some annoyances with the restaurants have been noted, the company's food and novel approach to business have been well reviewed in local and national press.

Overview

The company began in September 2008 as one food truck serving the area around the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As of fall 2011 Clover Food Lab had around 70 employees,^[1] two restaurants in Cambridge—one in Harvard Square and one in Inman Square—and five food trucks stationed near MIT, Boston University, Boston's South End neighborhood, Longwood Medical Area, Government Center, and Dewey Square.

Focus

Ayr Muir, the founder of Clover Food Lab and a distant cousin of naturalist John Muir,^[2] has cited environmental motivations as a driving force behind the company's creation, and wants "to shrink the ecological footprint of the food industry by making fresh, local, sustainable vegetarian food as common and convenient as the fare at Burger King or McDonald's".^[2] The company's food trucks are decommissioned and retrofitted cargo vehicles that use recycled vegetable oil to help them run.^[3][4] All of the company's utensils, napkins, and other items are compostable.^[5] Despite Clover Food Lab's focus on local, sustainable and vegetarian food, Muir consciously avoids branding the company's food as such, saying that "no one will eat it if we do".^[2]

Design

Clover Food Lab's restaurant in Harvard Square

Clover Food Lab's trucks and restaurants have minimalist, somewhat industrial design, and include elements that give them the look and feel of a laboratory.^[3] The sides and walls are plain white, menus are written on whiteboards with black dry-erase marker, and the restaurants are brightly-lit and have mostly stool seating. The kitchen has "a pop-up quality, as if the crew is here temporarily, planning to relocate elsewhere."^[6] Staff enter customer orders and process credit and debit cards through an iPod touch system, and give change from their money belts instead of cash registers.

Reception

Lian Chikako Chang has noted that the unusual customer flow at the company's Harvard Square restaurant is often confusing for the first-timer, and could be better accommodated by spatial cues.^[3] The restaurants' eccentricity and sparseness, although a part of its distinctive character, have been a source of some annoyances.^[6]

Clover Food Lab's BLT sandwich uses soy bacon,^[6] and has been cited as the best BLT sandwich in Boston by Mayor Thomas Menino.^[1] The company was a winner of the Food Truck Challenge,^[7] a competition initiated by Menino to bring healthy mobile food vending to Boston, which has lead to a rising trend in the city in the use of food and coffee trucks.^[8] Clover Food Lab was named one of the top 10 food trucks in the United States by The Wall Street Journal,^[9] and given the 2011 Best of Boston award for vegetarian food by The Improper Bostonian.^[10] The company was one of several food truck services highlighted by The Huffington Post for its intense use of technology (especially social media), distinctive product, and cult-like following.^[11]

See also

	Boston portal
	Companies portal

• Kogi Korean BBQ
• Don Chow Tacos

External links

• Official website

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Landrigan, Kelly (October 24, 2011). "Menino looks toward a healthier Boston in kicking off Food Day". The Daily Free Press. http://dailyfreepress.com/2011/10/24/menino-looks-toward-a-healthier-boston-in-kicking-off-food-day/. Retrieved November 12, 2011. 
2. ^ ^{a b c} Kalin, Sari (November/December 2010). "Everything will be different tomorrow". Technology Review. http://www.technologyreview.in/computing/26515/. Retrieved November 13, 2011. 
3. ^ ^{a b c} Chang, Lian Chikako (February 4, 2011). "Because you can’t eat architecture". Boston Society of Architects. http://www.architects.org/category/keywords/clover-food-lab. Retrieved November 13, 2011. 
4. ^ Bettex, Morgan (January 13, 2010). "Even in the cold, Clover is hot". MIT News. http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/clover-tlc-0113.html. Retrieved November 13, 2011. 
5. ^ Johnston, Susan (March 8, 2011). "Clover Food Lab Does the Impossible". http://cityrover.com/boston/clover-food-lab-does-the-impossible/. Retrieved November 13, 2011. 
6. ^ ^{a b c} Julian, Sheryl (February 16, 2011). "An experiment in building better food". The Boston Globe. http://articles.boston.com/2011-02-16/ae/29340577_1_breakfast-sandwich-yolk-food-trucks. Retrieved November 13, 2011. 
7. ^ "Food Truck Challenge". City of Boston. 2011. http://www.cityofboston.gov/business/mobile/challenge.asp. Retrieved November 12, 2011. 
8. ^ Al Hmoud, Mounira (October 28, 2011). "Getting coffee on the go in Allston, thanks to food trucks". The Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/allston_brighton/2011/10/getting_coffee_on_the_go_in_al.html. Retrieved November 12, 2011. 
9. ^ Chung, Juliet; Wingfield, Nick; et al. (June 5, 2009). "The Truck Stops Here: 10 Top Food Trucks in The U.S.". Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204456604574203652602654872.html. Retrieved November 13, 2011. 
10. ^ "Boston's Best Food & Drink 2011". The Improper Bostonian. http://www.improper.com/bostons-best/food-drink/. Retrieved November 12, 2011. 
11. ^ Waters, Joe (November 5, 2011). "What Nonprofits Can Learn From The Food Truck Craze". The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-waters/what-nonprofits-can-learn_b_1073586.html. Retrieved November 12, 2011.