Vegetarian and vegan fast-food restaurant chains have been a tough sell to consumers over the last 10 years.
Vegetarian fast-food chains such as Amy’s Drive Thru and Planta have closed all or most of their locations after facing financial difficulties.
And now, plant-based fast-food chain Clover Food Lab might also close all of its locations by May 29.
Clover Food Lab will close if it can’t sell
Fast-food dining chain Clover Food Lab‘s five-year plan to add 47 new stores did not work out as planned, as the restaurant operator has decided to close all locations if it can’t find a buyer just two-and-a-half years into the plan.
Clover Food Lab filed for Chapter 11 protection on Nov. 3, 2023, with 15 locations, but closed two locations during its reorganization. The company closed three more locations since its bankruptcy and now operates 10 locations in the Boston metropolitan area, according to its website.
Fast-food chain files WARN notice
The restaurant chain‘s parent, Clover Fast Food Inc., filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice on March 30, informing the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and 182 impacted employees that all employees would be laid off by May 29, 2026, unless the company could sell all of the restaurants.
Clover Food Lab has been seeking a buyer for its restaurants to prevent the company from closing all of them, Restaurant Business reported.
The restaurant chain could file for Chapter 7 liquidation if it does not find a buyer and needs to close all stores.
The restaurant chain opened as a single food truck in 2008 on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus in Cambridge, Mass.
The fast-food chain offers an organic, vegetarian menu that “changes by the minute to keep up with daily available produce from farms in New England,” according to Clover Food Lab’s website.
Clover planned expansion to 60 units
Two years ago, Clover Food Lab had an ambitious plan to open smaller outlets in urban areas and around universities and grow the chain from 15 locations when it filed for bankruptcy to 60 outlets after a five-year period, according to an April 24, 2024, statement.
The restaurant chain, however, did not expand. The company is now looking to either sell the chain or close it down.
Clover lost its financing source
Clover Food Lab also had expansion plans before filing for bankruptcy, as it planned to expand in New England and into New York. Lower-than-expected sales and the loss of its financing source, Silicon Valley Bank, killed those ambitions.
After 11 years, all five Amy’s Drive Thru locations have closed, with Roseville and Thousand Oaks, Calif., restaurants closing in 2024; Corte Madera, Calif., closing in 2025; and Rohnert Park, Calif., and San Francisco International Airport locations both closing in 2026.
Amy’s Kitchen still operates its frozen and canned foods retail business.
Just like Clover Food Lab, Amy’s Drive Thru planned an ambitious expansion to 25 to 30 stores, but the company had second thoughts.
“We’re going to grow from the basis of sustainable growth, not just to show we can do it,” Amy’s President Paul Schiefer said in an interview. “There are too many casualties of companies that grew in the wrong way. They didn’t build a model, playbook, or team,” he added, according to Nation’s Restaurant News.
Vegan fast-food chain Planta, which had 18 locations at one time, had a more difficult path than Amy’s, as the restaurant operator first filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on May 12, 2025, and then its bankruptcy was converted to Chapter 7 liquidation after its assets were sold to its lender. The chain, however, still operates eight locations.
Another plant-based restaurant chain that recently closed was actor Kevin Hart’s Hart House vegan fast-food chain, which abruptly closed down its four California locations in Westchester, Monrovia, Hollywood, and University Park on Sept. 10, 2024, after debuting two years earlier, Eater reported.
Clover Food Lab locations:
- 160 Federal St., Boston
- 536 Boston Post Road, Sudbury, Mass.
- 100 Burlington Mall Road, Burlington, Mass.
- 835 Washington St., Newton, Mass.
- 496 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, Mass.
- 1 Oxford St., Cambridge, Mass.
- 1326 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, Mass.
- 1075 Cambridge St., Cambridge, Mass.
- 290 Main St., Cambridge, Mass.
- 800 Boylston St. No. 15, Boston, Mass.
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