BOSTON — Clover Food Lab announced in late May 2026 that it would close all of its locations. The company also announced plans to reopen a reduced number of locations for lunch service beginning June 9, 2026, after securing a new investor.
The closure decision followed unsuccessful efforts to sell the business to a buyer. Company leadership cited pandemic-related disruptions, decreased office worker traffic, rising food costs, and insufficient profits as reasons for the initial closure. This resulted in the layoff of 170 employees. Clover Food Lab chief executive Julia Wrin Piper said, "The world of restaurants and retail changes so fast, especially in response to these other larger forces at work, whether it be a horrific winter, inflation, or a war."
Piper also said, "I think there's a real authenticity in a connection to the little corner of the world that produces this food. There's a lot of joy from that." Clover Food Lab began in 2008 as a food truck near the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It expanded to operate 12 locations and launched a meal-kit delivery service. The fast-casual vegetarian restaurant primarily serves Boston and Cambridge. Clover Food Lab sources 80 percent of its produce from approximately 12 New England farms.
Luke Mahoney, a farmer at Brookford Farm in Canterbury, New Hampshire, said, "I've already planted the vegetables that I was planning on selling Clover next June, a year from now. There's really not a lot of authentically farm-to-table places left. A lot of people claim they do, but they really don't." Sarah Voiland, a farmer at Red Fire Farm in Granby, Massachusetts, said, "Clover is a rare type of customer that is willing to take what is available and figure out how to fit it into their menu."
Phillip Deen visited a Clover Food Lab location in Boston on May 28, 2026.
No independent assessment of Clover Food Lab’s claims was available.