About the Tin Shed
From Herstory to Ourstory
With many years of restaurant experience and big dreams, Christie Griffin and Janette Kaden opened the Tin Shed Garden Cafe in February 2002. In the beginning it was only the two of them, Janette in the kitchen and Christie out front, both of them bootstrapping the conversion of an old coffee shop into a full-service restaurant. Days started early with food prep and ran long with guests to serve until late afternoon, then clean-up and admin duties before heading to their second shifts serving tables elsewhere to pay the bills. It wasn’t long before folks in the neighborhood took notice and word spread. Tin Shed became a community fixture.
With Janette focused on food quality and flavor, and with Christie focused on warm service and attention to detail, they both committed to making the Tin Shed the kind of place that values connection over commerce. The idea here is an overall focus on making every guest who walks through our doors feel at home, while serving high quality food and drinks and making a positive impact on the local community.
In early 2025, Janette and Christie were pleased to announce the addition of a new partner, long-time Shed employee Eric Pottenger, who has returned ‘back home’ to help ensure this community and quality focus remains uninterrupted moving forward. For many years Eric was a cherished employee of the Shed, always pouring his infectious enthusiasm, smiles and laughter into the day-to-day operation of the restaurant. We are pleased to welcome him back, and are happy to share him once again with the community.
Past and present Tin Shed staff
The Tin Shed wouldn’t be such an amazing place to dine and work without our many employees (past and present) whose ideas and suggestions, hard work, grit and humor have helped us continue to improve the guest experience, and embody the ambitious Tin Shed mission. In that sense, we also feel so much gratitude toward our guests, whose patronage has allowed us to provide more jobs than we could ever have imagined otherwise. We have created a little ecosystem here, and we are extremely grateful to all that have played a part!
In the community
We buy organic and local whenever possible, and our meat comes from animals that were regionally raised and treated humanely. We supply local, free-range chicken, no hormones or antibiotics. We supply local, grass-fed beef and wild-caught Alaskan salmon. We are also responsible with food when we are done with it. The Shed was a pioneer when it came to being environmental stewards, recycling, composting and using renewable energy before it became commonplace.
We are proud supporters of various causes that are near and dear to the hearts of our staff and community. For example, with our doggie bandana program, we raise money for small, but mighty, animal rescue missions. But we also donate regularly to local charitable events, incuding nearby elementary school programs, Asher House, Family Dogs New Life Shelter, Street Books, Equitable Giving Circle and Crag Environmental Law Center. The underlying impulse here is to help our local youngsters grow and learn; to help animals find forever homes; and help the community to continue to thrive.
We are a part of this community. This community has helped us succeed. It only makes sense that we would help strengthen the community that has been so good to us!
In the media
The Tin Shed has been featured on the Food Network, OPB, in the New York Times and many other travel publications, TV shows and podcasts.
