Today we’d like to introduce you to Eric Pottenger.
Hi Eric, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
The Tin Shed Garden Cafe opened its doors in February of 2002. The cafe restaurant is the brainchild of Janette Kaden and Christie Griffin, the founding owner-operators. Their vision was to create a cafe/restaurant with an elevated standard of food and community connection; meaning, a relaxed, approachable and hospitable atmosphere, a place where people can simply be people, minus the ‘roles’ and barriers that inhibit connection; while, at the same time, maintaining a standard of excellence around delicious food and beverage. I prefer to think of it as caring deeply about what’s ‘really important’ in a quality dining experience, while leaving behind much of the stuffy formality. We’re not big on stuffy formality here. We like to treat our visitors as if they were guests in our homes. We prefer to treat them as friends (or soon-to-be friends); and develop real rapport with them. We want them to leave the restaurant feeling as if something special just happened. Who wouldn’t want this, right?
So far as my journey here… Janette and Christie invited me to be an owner-partner in 2024, but my own own personal journey with the restaurant began many years earlier, in early-2007 to be exact.
Back in 2007, when the Tin Shed posted online about an evening management opportunity, I had just recently departed Meriwether’s, a fine-dining restaurant in NW Portland. At that point I had been working in restaurants professionally for around seven years, almost exclusively in fine-dining environments. I learned a whole lot from these restaurants, especially a restaurant called Zanzibar in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Wonderful food and wonderful people. But without really knowing it at the time, I was looking for something different. And the Tin Shed turned out to be exactly what I was looking for!
In the Tin Shed I discovered an opportunity to help build a restaurant culture that I actually believed in; meaning, their operating philosophy aligned with my own; their passions were my passions. More than anything else, we longed for real connection; a real team ethos amongst the staff; a focus on excellence in the details; inspiration where it counts, but minus any ‘snooty’ divisive energy common to many places. I was eager to help build that and coach that into existence. I’m a serious person, but I’m also a gregarious person, and I crave warmth and humor in all environments I’m a part of, including (and especially) my working environment. My conversations with Janette and Christie confirmed to me that this was a place in which I could grow and thrive almost as an extension of myself. In retrospect, it makes a whole lot of sense that I would eventually be invited to carry their original vision into the future.
All of the same values the the Tin Shed started with are paramount values today. We have built and maintained a wonderful and committed team of employees, a real culture of excellence and professional expectation. And our relationship with the community remains. We are delighted to impress first-timers; and with our many regulars, it’s like we’re always picking up a conversation that was started long ago. To us, that’s what this is all about.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I would say our biggest organizational challenge has been to not get comfortable with success, but to ‘earn it’ everyday. We have such a loyal fan base; and we continue to get recognized each year as being a ‘destination spot’ in the elite Portland brunch scene. All of which is wonderful; we feel blessed everyday. But with that success comes a temptation (at times) to think as if all of this success were a given. It’s never a given. We have to earn it everyday. We must push ourselves to be innovative, to not rest upon our laurels. This means to always be listening; and to always be paying attention to the details. It means that we must conjure up new and exciting offerings to pair with our many longtime menu favorites. It means paying attention to what’s “not working” and to never get comfortable with something that’s simply “good enough.” It means really knowing who we are, but also innovating within that framework. All of this (continuity versus change) can be a challenging balance, and especially when asking employees to embrace difficult change and evolve from the status quo. But as this is a huge component of our success, we must do this work, we must face this challenge, and make it an expectation of every single person in our building.
We’ve been impressed with Tin Shed Garden Cafe, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
You’re asking me, what “is” the Tin Shed?
Well, at least generally, The Tin Shed Garden Cafe is a full service brunch restaurant in the Alberta Arts District in Northeast Portland. You can come here and eat a good breakfast or lunch seven days a week. That is a fairly simplified way to describe us.
But we’re so much more than a brunch restaurant.
There are things we do at Tin Shed that are, well, different. And many cases exceptional. THESE are the reasons why folks go out of their way to come here.
Let us first talk about our people, our staff.
We have cultivated a workplace culture in our restaurant that is simply amazing, absolutely unique. Some of that has been sheer luck; some of that has been quality choices when interviewing and hiring; some of that has been the hard work and dedication of our leadership, and the organization as a whole, creating a culture of accountability and professionalism. All of these variables have played a role, to be sure. Whether we can take responsibility for some or all of it, we are extremely proud.
Just consider that we’ve been in business for just over twenty-four years. And then consider that, on our staff RIGHT NOW, we’ve got two employees that have been with us for over twenty years; and at least a half-dozen more that have been with us for over fifteen! Our staff is approximately thirty employees at any given moment, and maybe half of them have been with us for over a decade! That fact right there is incredible from an organizational point-of-view! The aggregate intelligence (occupational intelligence) in the building is just staggering. And so when we hire someone new, our culture absorbs that new employee in the right way. Our culture has strength; our culture builds excellence in expectation and success in execution. Our culture emphasizes the ‘right way’ to do things, which, in the end, is really about supporting TEAM, supporting each other. What makes the TEAM better? How do we support the TEAM? Because, it’s through support of the team that we are then able to bring our very best to the folks that show up, whether that means cooking food or providing a welcoming space to enjoy it.
One thing to know about how we support our staff: if you come to the Tin Shed, and you look around our dining room, what you may discover mounted on our walls are a bunch of painted portraits, one after the other. Those portraits are commissioned paintings of staff members–staff members that have worked here for over a decade. We understand how important it is to be good to one another, and good to our staff. How can we ask our employees to believe in us, and believe in our mission, if we fail to respect them, and fail to honor their contributions? I’ve worked in many places that have never asked that question… and it shows. No shade against other organizations, but we know better. Our staff portrait gallery (and ten year celebration tradition) is symbolic of our larger operating philosophy, one that’s really important to us. And so our portrait tradition is something we’re extremely proud to share.
As I alluded to earlier, our belief is that, being good to our employees, and creating a hospitable working environment, contributes to a vibe which radiates into our dining room. It’s a vive that our guest can ‘feel.’ It finds its way into the food, really.
So far as food… we specialize in taking a classic American-style brunch experience and simply elevating it. So many details go into that. Our menu design is built around making common American breakfast or lunch dishes, but just executing those exceptionally well. Doing ‘basic’ things exceptionally well… that’s nothing to scoff at. But we have also created our own ‘signature’ dishes with entirely unique flavor combinations, many of which are longtime favorites and reasons for folks to make a special trip here. Like, for example, our Good Dog “stacked” breakfast scramble. It’s a colorful dish where scrambled eggs are cooked with seasoned pork sausage, bell peppers, onions, jalapeno, piled on top of our signature potato cakes; covered with shredded cheddar, salsa fresca, and chipotle aioli. People love that dish! You cannot order that flavor combination anywhere but here!
Most brunch places offer a style of potato. Usually it’s hash browns or it’s home fries. At the Tin Shed we serve potato cakes, which are offered with most breakfast dishes. The potato cakes (similar to latkes) are typically served with a dollop of sour cream and diced green onion sprinkled on top, a real crowd pleaser.
Another item that attracts attention here is our buttermilk biscuit. Our biscuits are large, light and fluffy on the inside, with a crusty exterior… not dense or “puck-ish” like many biscuits one finds. People go crazy for our biscuits. Our raspberry jam and biscuit combo is divine; but we also have two different gravies to pair with them as well: our smokey bacon gravy; and a rosemary-mushroom gravy. Both gravies are excellent. It just depends upon which flavor direction you want to go.
About beverages, just real quick… our mimosas and Bloody Marys are served in pint glasses! In fact, our Bloody Mary was just voted one of the top Bloodys in all of Portland! We house-infuse vodka for our Bloody Marys: we offer extra spicy, bacon, cucumber, and dill pickle varieties.
Yes, I could go on and on about each food or beverage item, but I think any reader has gotten the point. I’ll simply recommend visiting our website and scroll through our online menu, note all the unique flavor combinations. We offer something tantalizing to just about anyone.
Another reason folks love coming here is how flexible and accommodating we are with preferences and allergies. We offer separate, standalone menus for our vegan guests and our gluten-free guests. We recently started making scratch gluten-free biscuits to accompany our regular buttermilk biscuits on the menu. Our hope is that the gluten-free community will recognize our efforts and consider us a viable option for safe, delicious food.
Lastly, I must mention our atmosphere. Our restaurant feels very welcoming, very community oriented. The interior and exterior spaces are eclectic, designed for fun and for comfort. The music we play is eclectic. Many folks on the staff are in bands, and their music tastes cover the spectrum. You could never guess what music we’ll be playing, and that’s part of the fun. We have a large, all weather patio space with a big fireplace and overhead heaters to keep everyone warm through the wintertime. We have a garden space with plenty of trees and shrubs. Also, dogs! We invite our guests to bring their dogs, and we even serve prepared meals for dogs, which are listed on our menu. I guess some people might think that’s unusual, and perhaps it is. But we are a family-friendly restaurant, and we understand our dogs are members of our families. And for that reason dog-lovers love coming to dine here! We also support many dog rescue organizations, dog adoption organizations, and even host adoption events. Our connection to dogs is foundational. Many of our menu items are named after dog commands.
Ultimately, yes, we are a ‘restaurant’… but as you can doubtless see, we’re much more than that; we’re a part of this community, and we take that responsibility very seriously.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
Learning the value of joy through performance. When I was about seven years old, I learned how to sing “Love on the Rocks” by Neil Diamond. I had seen the movie, The Jazz Singer, a couple times, and learned not only the song, but the particular cadence of the song, the way Neil sings it. Anyway, somehow my aunts and uncles found out about this skill of mine, and whenever we would get together for the holidays, they would delight in watching me belt out the tune, as if I were some kind of singing machine that they could drop a coin into and get a thrill. I loved the attention these performances gave me; I loved watching others delight in my skill. I don’t think I’m much different today.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.tinshedgardencafe.com
- Instagram: @tinshedgardencafe
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/tinshedgardencafe/
