Clover Food Lab shared the following note with TheStreet.<\/em><\/p>\n The level of public support was staggering following last week\u2019s closure announcement. Our restaurants were flooded with people. The sales were staggering. We received hundreds and hundreds of emotional notes from customers (I\u2019m including some excerpts at the bottom of this email.) The farmers we work with weighed in on social media while standing in their fields of actual clover.\u00a0 We even received a surprisingly catchy tribute song.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fueled by this massive outpouring of support, and following months of outreach and negotiation, several potential paths forward opened for the company. We finalized a deal with a mission-aligned investor who was motivated by the strength of the brand and the differentiation of our locally-sourced menu.\u00a0<\/p>\n Inflationary pressures on our industry remain an issue, of course, and we are now working hard on implementing operational changes to ensure the financial sustainability of Clover. Our reopening next week will focus on our core Cambridge and Boston locations.\u00a0<\/p>\n The chain did not share how many restaurants it will be reopening. <\/em><\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Vegetarian restaurants operate with a built-in disadvantage compared to eateries with a broader menu. <\/p>\n As a non-vegetarian with vegan relatives, there’s always a battle between going to a vegan restaurant and a restaurant that accommodates vegans. In my personal case, we often opt for the broader menu that makes everyone happy, which essentially shows the challenge facing vegetarian and vegan restaurants.<\/p>\n When you visit a restaurant with a traditional menu, there’s nothing stopping you from ordering a vegetarian meal. Most places will accommodate special dietary requests, and many restaurants offer salads and other dishes that are naturally vegetarian.<\/p>\n But a meat-eater can’t order a steak, a chicken sandwich, or any other non-vegetarian meal at a vegetarian restaurant. And although there’s nothing stopping a non-vegetarian from eating at a vegetarian restaurant, many non-vegetarian diners may choose restaurants with broader menus.<\/p>\n Only 1% of Americans identify as vegans, according to Gallup,\u00a0while the same poll showed that 3% consider themselves vegetarian. That means a vegetarian restaurant, unless it\u2019s in a very large city, needs to appeal to non-vegetarian customers.<\/p>\n That family dynamic, multiplied across millions of mixed households, is exactly what just sank an 18-year-old cult-favorite restaurant chain.<\/p>\n Clover Food Lab which began as a food truck and grew to more than 15 locations at its height, has decided to shut down all of its restaurants and its meal delivery service on May 28.<\/p>\n And, while most people think of it as a vegetarian chain, the company describes itself in a different way. <\/p>\n “This is Fast Food. We\u2019re obsessed with speed and constantly time ourselves. Our average serve times are around 3.5 minutes, which makes us a little slower than McDonald\u2019s,” it shared on its website.<\/p>\n There have been signs that the sandwich, bowls, and soup chain was in trouble even after its 2023 bankruptcy filing, including a recent Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN), which told the state that it would lay off 182 workers if it didn\u2019t find a buyer by May 29, according to Boston Business Journal.<\/p>\n Clover Food Lab shared an email explaining its closing with NBC Boston.<\/p>\n “So what’s happened? We’ve always prized transparency along Clover’s journey. Our current situation isn’t a unique story. In the best of times, restaurants are a tough business: margins are thin, building new restaurants is expensive, and our industry is the most exposed to macroeconomic forces,” the company shared.<\/p>\n More Restaurants\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Ultimately, the chain blamed rising costs and the Covid pandemic. <\/p>\n “For years we’ve been navigating the hangover effects of Covid and inflation at every part of our supply chain, but we are proud to have remained committed to sourcing high-quality ingredients from local farms. Today, everyone is getting hit with rising costs \u2014 food prices are up, delivery prices are up, and a hundred other costs are moving in the same direction,” the company added.<\/p>\n Shutterstock<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Clover Food Lab is not alone in its struggles. A number of other vegan and vegetarian restaurants have closed over the past few years.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen customers have uncertainty, and they\u2019re really watching every dollar, the cost of things becomes more important, which puts specialty outlets perhaps at a competitive disadvantage,\u201d Jason Kaplan, CEO of restaurant and hospitality consulting firm JK Consulting, told Bloomberg Law.<\/p>\n Clover Food Lab joins a list of similar restaurants that have shut down.<\/p>\n Vegan and vegetarian restaurants are vulnerable because traditional chains offer options for customers who follow those diets. <\/p>\n “Leading QSR brands like McDonald’s, Burger King, and Dunkin are adding more vegan-friendly options to their menus, limiting the need to only frequent fully vegan chains,” Placer.ai Chief Marketing Officer Ethan Chernofsky told QSRweb.<\/p>\n “…There is an increasing availability of vegan options across the food and restaurant space, and this is likely impacting traffic to specialty chains.”<\/p>\n Related: Target hits deadline for removing popular cereals<\/strong><\/p>\nClover Food Lab is closing all locations<\/h2>\n
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A brief history of Clover Food Lab<\/h2>\n
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Vegetarian restaurants have struggled<\/h2>\n
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