Square Gets New Organic Option

Among a sea of burger joints and pizza parlors, Clover, a restaurant focused on local, vegetarian and mainly organic food, will soon be opening at 7 Holyoke Street.

Currently running out of a food truck at MIT, Clover serves vegetarian food ranging from chickpea fritters to freshly made popovers to French fries, the “gateway drug” for new patrons. The truck is decorated by a dry erase board that changes with the company’s seasonal menu; it provides hot soups in the winter, and salads and seasonal fruits in the summer.

Ayr Muir, the CEO of Clover Fast Food Inc. and a 2000 college graduate of MIT, said that the truck began in September 2008 as a test-run for the menu Muir planned on using in his future restaurant. However, when he shut the truck down after the test-run period of a mere six weeks, Muir’s customers were so vocal in their disappointment that the truck re-opened in March 2009. The time in-between allowed Muir to reorganize for the overwhelming number of customers the truck receives.

“We thought that we would serve 20 to 40 people a day, but it was ten times those numbers, so we needed some time to hire the right people and keep up with it all,” Muir said.

Muir added that he thinks that the food truck’s current large-scale appeal will translate well to the new restaurant space.

“We serve a lot of different people: old, young, blue collar workers, office workers, university people, and I think that will stay the same. The prices are low and the food is really accessible, so no one should be shut out of it,” Muir said.

Harvard students said they were excited about the new addition to Harvard Square and thought that it would provide a unique alternative to the restaurants already available in the area.

“I get tired of having five different places where you can get burritos, so it would be nice to have something different,” Eliza G. Ives ‘11 said.

Chandan G. Lohta ’13 echoed similar sentiments, adding that even though he does not eat out often, he would “absolutely try it out.”

Although their food is vegetarian, Clover’s MIT fan base has reached far beyond the vegetarian community. Muir notes that more than three quarters of their patrons are not vegetarian.

Muir said he hopes that Clover’s new location will be the first of many restaurants. He will also continue with the Clover food truck at MIT, and has plans for opening another truck in either the Longwood Medical or Back Bay area.