Farm boy

Mike Whalen is working hard to parlay Machine Shed and his other close-to-the-farm concepts into a sizeable Midwestern collection of mid-priced eateries. Building a restaurant empire, he insists, is incidental to pursuing a much larger mission, an objective he calls the "five-word constitution" of his 14-unit brood: Dedicated to the American Farmer. The seven-unit Machine Shed chain is the flagship of Whalen's Heart of America group, but the multi-tiered mix also includes three Thunder Bay Grilles and a number of one-of-a-kinds, for a total of six restaurant brands. Several more are in various stages of development, but Whalen regards Machine Shed as the concept best positioned for growth because of its relatively low ticket and high volume. Although he says he can envision Heart of America going public and putting Machine Sheds in faraway places like Boston, Whalen maintains that the menu requires too much talent to permit that sort of exponential growth. And, he admits, he is not eager to share control of the company with shareholders.