Clover: the return?!

[magid]

Remember how last week I posted about Clover’s demise? Well, apparently I wasn’t the only person incredibly saddened by this, and 10 minutes ago, I got an email from them saying that they were overwhelmed with the love, and…. they’ll be re-opening the Cambridge and Boston locations next week!

[My notes in square brackets.]

Last Tuesday when we announced we were closing after 17 years, we were not prepared for the response. We knew people would miss us, but we didn’t understand HOW MUCH they would miss us.

People FLOODED our restaurants.

A customer wrote a tribute song! [Youtube link]

Another drew this. [Instagram link]

A child baked a cake with a Clover leaf and the words "RIP, we love you."

Article after article came out, one hitting every few minutes. [original had links to the Boston Globe, which doesn’t have open access.]

We made a "Share a Memory” survey, thinking we’d get a dozen notes. It now has 494. (Click here to read a selection [no link available; it led to a directly downloaded .docx]). The notes were visceral and heartbreaking and funny, but mostly they were disbelieving. “This can't be happening,” people kept saying. Some version of “Clover changed my life” appeared over and over. There were more than a couple "Clover saved my life.”

Fellow businesses and farmers posted on IG.

Former staff who moved away traveled hours for a final popover. Toddlers in strollers clutched their last containers of hummus. Someone biked all around Cambridge to visit as many locations as she could. People took to Reddit to share a romesco recipe from Veggie Monster.

On the last day at Harvard Square (which also happened to be Commencement) our long-tenured team was laughing and reminiscing and blasting music amidst all the "sorries" from customers standing shoulder-to-shoulder, holding their last Mushroom Popper or Soy BLT.

Customers were crying, and that made us cry.

And then something happened.

At a certain point, the amount of public outcry became so widespread that it led to an email, then a phone call, then several phone calls, then some very late night meetings. And that’s why we're now able to announce some shocking news...

CLOVER WILL CONTINUE.

We didn’t plan this. We couldn’t have. And we’re still figuring it out—but it’s true!

🍀 We will not continue as a shell of ourselves, or someone else's concept grafted onto our leases.

🍀 We will continue as the experience that we have all built together—the concept that moved so many to raise their voices last week.

🍀 We will continue to change with the seasons, support local farmers, create local jobs, and foster community.

We will continue to be Clover.

This won’t be without some big changes. We'll be closed for the remainder of this week, everywhere. We need to regroup. And then, next Tuesday June 9, we will reopen our Boston and Cambridge locations for lunch and onward. Breakfast will come back the next day.

Probably the top question we heard during our shutdown was “What can I do to help??” The answer is: A LOT.

♥️ Eat at Clover and give us honest feedback: good when it's good, bad when it's bad. Clover has always been more than a restaurant, it’s been a beautiful ecosystem of feedback from customers leading to innovation from our team, and we can't continue that without your thoughts. If you see an opportunity we're missing, tell us.

♥️ If you love Clover, when we reopen, could you commit to introducing one new person to us? Every one of you reading this is an ambassador for our mission. Tell a coworker, trick a skeptical carnivore, bring your crush. (There have been LOTS of first dates at Clovers—and some children that resulted!)

♥️ If you love another local business, eat there too!

On the Memory Survey, someone said Clover food was "Food that loves you back." That has never felt more true.
​
Thank you for stepping up and speaking out. It’s because of you we are still here.

Please keep an eye on this email, the Clover blog, and our Instagram.

More soon. We need to get back to work.

Thank you, thank you, thank you,
Your Clover Family

Comments

[julian]

I was going to be like, "OK, but *which* Cambridge location?" and then I realized that's probably still in process.

Also: awesome.

[magid]

Maybe all of them? Unclear.

It would still mean fewer than the 11 locations they closed, since it wouldn’t include Newton or the two in the suburbs in Whole Foods locations.

[ruthling]

which Boston location??
that's kind of wild!