Clover opens restaurant in Harvard Square

The Boston Globe
Transparent approach has this restaurant in Clover
By Natalie Southwick
Globe Correspondent / November 10, 2010

CAMBRIDGE — Most restaurants don’t promise mistakes, but Clover Food Lab isn’t trying to be like most restaurants. Since opening in 2008, Clover’s white trucks have gained a loyal following throughout the Boston area. On Oct. 29, the second anniversary of its first sandwich sale, the health-conscious fast food joint opened a restaurant in Harvard Square. While it may be permanent, it’s far from perfect.

Just ask the owners. “This is a prototype. We will screw something up. We’ll screw many things up. Tell us when that happens,’’ instructs a passage painted on an interior wall by Clover founder Ayr Muir. Employees already seem to have taken this message to heart. “It’s an ever-evolving process,’’ says Clover general manager Chris Anderson. “We constantly change and rearrange things. We’re big do it ourself-ers, so the theme of the restaurant is just do it yourself.’’

In just over six weeks, the team converted two floors of office space into a 96-seat restaurant and added a 22-foot-long table carved from a single Berkshires red oak tree, an ivy wall, and a fully functional kitchen. After two days of inspections, they opened the doors. “We’d been planning for a while and it all kind of just fell into place,’’ says Muir, an MIT graduate who left a consulting job at McKinsey & Co. to start Clover. “It’s been really lucky.’’ The founders say a restaurant was always part of their vision.

“The trucks were a safe way to test a menu without being under a lease,’’ says executive chef Rolando Robledo, whose pre-Clover career included working at The French Laundry and teaching at Johnson & Wales University. “In my mind, this is just like another truck.’’ The truck template is present throughout the kitchen, from the layout to Robledo himself, who chats with customers as he enters orders on Clover’s unique iPod Touch-based system. Still, there are some differences — most notably the enormous windows that encourage passersby to peer into the kitchen and watch fresh popovers rising in the oven.

“We don’t want to shout at people about things being organic and fresh and local,’’ says Muir. “Instead I’d rather them just be able to see what we’re doing and talk to us about it.’’

“We’re making a statement with the windows,’’ says Robledo. “We’re trying to be very transparent about everything we do.’’ With no exterior signs besides a small A-frame bearing their menu, Clover is relying on that transparency — and word-of-mouth — to attract new customers. Harvard junior Miriam Muscarella, 22, came on opening day for cider and returned for lunch the next two days. “I’m really excited to try everything,’’ she said, adding that the chick pea fritter sandwich is the “only thing I’ve found in the US’’ that reminds her of her favorite falafel from Paris. “I will never be tempted to go to another fast food place.’’

“I don’t care how many people come in,’’ says Muir. “I just care that each person’s having a really good experience. If I had a line out there of 50 people, I wouldn’t be that happy, because I don’t think we’d be serving them as well as if we had a few people.’’ Along with the chick pea fritters is a tomato, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich and thin-cut rosemary fries. Clover offers seasonal soups and salads and a rotating selection of drinks, like lavender lemonade or bright green tarragon-and-anise soda. Sodas often change daily, while other items might rotate weekly.

Some things don’t last through the day, which is intentional. “We’d rather run out before the end of the day than carry something over and have something that’s a day old,’’ says Robledo.

“People will try something else,’’ says Muir. “It’s a fun experience.’’

Their list of future items includes baby food and an upcoming Clover brew from Cambridge-based Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project. In the meantime, Robledo and Muir say they will continue improving the restaurant. Until everything is perfect, the writing will be on the wall.

Clover, 7 Holyoke St., Cambridge, www.cloverfoodlab.com

Natalie Southwick can be reached at natalie.southwick@gmail.com.