PSA: 24-Hour Clover Opening in Central Square
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Clover's Harvard Square restaurant is scheduled to reopen on Thursday. The chain had closed all operations following possible connection with a salmonella outbreak in the area.
Mark your calendars because today the healthy fast-food restaurant Clover will open up its first ever 24-hour restaurant! Located in Central Square at 496 Mass Ave., right next to the Middle East Restaurant and Nightclub, Clover HFI will be the company’s sixth location.
Ayr Muir, CEO and founder of Clover Food Labs, said that it’s not just the round-the-clock service which will make this location special.
“We have all sorts of ideas for it,” Muir said. “This restaurant from Clover’s standpoint is by far the most sophisticated one we've opened so far.”
Featuring posters from musical acts that have played at the nearby Middle East music venue, and pinball machines that pay homage to Central Square’s history as a pioneer in arcade games and entertainment, the restaurant goes farther in decorations than the local Harvard Square branch.
The restaurant will also honor its more illicit history—during prohibition, the site housed a pharmacy with a speakeasy in the basement according to Muir, and he plans on having about six different beers on tap.
To celebrate the opening, today at 11 a.m. the location will serve up free sandwiches, on Thursday there is an open house, and on Friday the restaurant will begin its 24-hour service.
Once Clover begins operating around-the-clock, Muir says that customers can expect a special menu after midnight that may include fried pickles, cheesy grits, and the chain’s breakfast sandwich among other offerings.
According to Muir, the inspiration to open the first 24-hour restaurant in all of Cambridge came in part from his days as an MIT student when there were no late night food options, and he predicted that the location would be busy “all night long.”
However, Muir isn’t stopping once he opens the Clover Central Square location.
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“I want thousands [of locations],” Muir added. “I was never in this for some little regional thing.”
Clover’s website does promise that there are a couple of additional leases in the works. As a Currierite, I can only hope the next 24/7 Clover is in the Quad. Oh, and that it serves a brussels sprout sandwich year-round.