“CloverROW will feature a specialty grocery store built in partnership with small business owners and entrepreneurs from Somerville and Cambridge”
Here are the rules for getting us to cover a new location of your long-established food business—be an institution that we love and cannot live without, and don’t be Applebee’s.
Clover Food Lab, of course, is very much the former and hardly the latter. And while we still miss the Hi-Fi Pizza it replaced in Central Square, that of course wasn’t their fault and we nevertheless like seeing them spread out to where Dig readers live. And Somerville is certainly one of those places.
In a statement about their fifteenth location and first in Somerville, their team announced that the newest store will open this fall in Assembly Row, “on Foley Street next to The Row Hotel.”
Furthermore, “CloverROW will also be home to a retail grocery experience located inside the restaurant.” Making it so that “an expanded selection of Clover’s signature hummuses and dips, salad dressings, sauces, salsas, soups, and meal boxes will be retailed for the first time, alongside a large selection of specialty foods sourced from small-batch artisans, makers, and local farms in Massachusetts and neighboring states.”
More from Clover below:
To curate the retail experience and offerings, Clover Food Lab has partnered with local entrepreneurs Bobby MacLean and Alexandra Whisnant of Bow Market’s specialty food store Picnic & Pantry and chocolate shop, gâté comme des fille, and Cambridge’s wine & dessert bar, Zuzu’s Petals. CloverROW will be Clover’s first location to feature a specialty grocery focusing on the tastiest foods from across the Northeast — from Western Massachusetts fresh produce, to New York maple syrup, to all manner of local small-batch spices, drinks, and treats. The grocery will include a coffee wall featuring a vast selection of beans sourced from New England-based roasters. Clover favorite hummuses, soups, meal boxes, and more will also be available. During the first months of operation, CloverROW will host a series of workshops and tastings spotlighting local orchards, coffee makers, syrup producers, and artists inspired by fruits and vegetables.
“Bringing Clover to the Somerville community has always been a dream of ours, and Assembly Row felt like the perfect fit for our first location in the city — and our first restaurant opening as the world emerges from COVID,” Ayr Muir, CEO & Founder of Clover Food Lab, said. “CloverROW will be home to the first full Clover grocery store, where we can share the best locally-sourced and thoughtfully produced food and drinks made by many of the very same farms and small businesses we order from for Clover’s kitchens every day. We are thrilled to bring attention to these local small businesses who are doing great — and yummy! — work.”
Dig Staff means this article was a collaborative effort. Teamwork, as we like to call it.
