About Restaurant: The current owner, Stephen York, opened The Whaling Company in the summer of 1980. The corporate name then was Continental Restaurant Systems owned by Ralston Purina. There has only been one Whaling Company ever built. Thru the late 1970’s to early 1990’s the corporation expanded to almost one hundred restaurants with names like Mountain Jacks and Hungry Hunter. Vickie Barbour, who joined with Stephen to buy the business in 2007, is a Hampton native and she was involved in opening the Mountain Jacks in Hampton in 1979.