When you start throwing a fit and saying you don't want to do your share, they tell you to get your act together. I carry the same values when I work here. Everyone needs to pull together. This is when I knew my Machine Shed experience would not be confused with some snotty Wicker Park restaurant. The Machine Shed is decorated with hundreds of antique farm implements and promotional seed company caps.
Servers wear bib overalls and serve cold drinks in canning jars.
Custom-made miniature silos serve as salt and pepper shakers. Besides Rockford, there are Machine Sheds in Davenport and Des Moines, Iowa, and four other locations in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Kansas. The best news is that the Machine Shed expects to open in the spring of 2002 at the northwest corner of Interstate 88 and Orchard Road in Aurora. He didn't grow up on a farm, but many neighbors were farmers. He named his restaurant in tribute to the farmer.