A new restaurant that puts the ish back in delicious.

CLOVER, a weirdly conceptual vegetarian restaurant, opened around the corner from Au Bon Pain on Holyoke Street two weeks ago. Unlike its pseudofrench neighbor, Clover takes a decidedly casual approach to food production, the effects of which are visible even to uninterested passers-by who glance through their full-length windows at the line cooks frying seitan in brightly colored aprons. Inside, customers convene over sloppy organics on lopsided faux-wood stools that gleam with the reflection of the bare white ceiling. The famously messy mission statement on the north wall is overshadowed only by the pride employees take in how quickly the place runs out of breakfast ingredients every morning.

Clover’s organic and local-grown aspirations, combined with its chain status (there are food trucks at MIT, South Station, and Kendall) and half-assed industrialist avant-garde décor, beg the question: how much concept is too much concept? No pomo, but the whole aw-look-how-honest-and-incompetent-we-are gag feels like a bit of a construct, which is what makes this place a haven for the ironically inclined.

That, and the fact that, despite its suspiciously hip aura, Clover offers some of the best, healthiest and fairest-priced food in the square. Entrees are tasty and filling at $5 each, while snacks and breakfast food are available for $4 and under at the same quality and surprising degree of tastiness. Drinks are a bit pricey at $2-$3, but worth it if you’re trying the weekly tea specialties (catnip mint?!) or delicious OJ. Highlights include the Soy BLT, beet salad, hand-cut fries and friendly staff. Though the employees will deny it, we econ concentrators here at the Voice suspect that prices will creep upwards as discerning Cambridgites sniff out this new eatery, so snag a fair-trade sandwich before the hipsters make it uncool.

Photo from yelp.com

La Flamme, the budget-friendly Harvard Square barbershop has apparently been featured in the January/February issue of Playboy magazine. The barbershop has quite the history — it was established in 1898 and has serviced many a famous Harvard alumni, including Barack Obama. If anyone, er, sees the issue around, let us know what you find! (Besides the obvious.) [link]