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The Iowa Machine Shed Restaurants

The Iowa Machine Shed Restaurants have a proud 26 year history. Over the years many people have come to call The Shed's home cooking their favorite. This dedication has enabled The Shed to spread around the Midwest (now 5 states and 7 restaurants) and spawn others (Thunder Bay Grille (3), Johnny's Italian Steakhouse (5) and 9 hotels.

The Shed's commitment to use only fresh products and real ingredients has proven to be a key ingredient to long term success. Mike Whalen tells an interesting story. "In the first few months before many people had discovered us, we were broke. We lost money and looked for ways to cut costs. One day a salesman sat me down and pitched the idea of whipped cream from the can. You know the squirt kind. I tasted it and it wasn't too bad. He'd figured up how much money I could save to change our pies to fake whipped cream. While he was pitching his savings, I glanced across the room and saw several of our farm friends eating at The Shed. I looked at the salesman and asked him how I could possibly tell those people that we weren't using real farm fresh ingredients."

That early test paved the way for the integrity The Machine Shed uses to develop new recipes. Each restaurant's Chefs are charged with the challenge of coming up with new creations. They run them as features, sometimes asking guests to complete a survey if they've ordered the featured item. If guests like them they share the recipes with other Machine Shed Chefs and the items may make it to the printed menu.

Next time you taste the Machine Shed's food, you'll be reminded that the potatoes came into the restaurant whole and with skins on, real creamery butter was used, nothing was frozen and yes, the whipped cream on your pie was truly whipped.

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