Matthew Henry Young was born on May 1, 1948, in New York City, the son of Leo and Shirley (Stein) Young. He had two sisters, Mandy and Libby. Matt grew up on Long Island, and at age 13 asked to go to boarding school. He went to Blair Academy in New Jersey, where he made lifelong friends, and later graduated from Alfred University with a degree in English. Matt briefly attended the New England School of Law in Boston, then got a job managing Dom’s, a high-end northern Italian restaurant on Commercial Street. It was a move that changed the course of his life. Matt had been fascinated from an early age by what was happening in the kitchen, and had long wanted to run a restaurant. He stayed at Dom’s for seven or so years. Matt finally opened his own restaurant, the Ocean Club, on Martha’s Vineyard in 1979. Influenced by the cuisine at Dom’s, his place became famous for its innovative gourmet food. It was also the go-to cool spot, frequented by locals as well as the island’s famous summer residents, including Lillian Hellman, John Belushi, Carly Simon, Jackie Onassis, William Styron and many others. Going to the Ocean Club meant having a good time — some said it was “like an event”— and the restaurant became legendary. Matt was the designer of it all. In 1985, some investors approached Matt asking him to open a second restaurant. And he did: the Cambridge Ocean Club in the Charles Hotel. During the time that he ran it, a local magazine named Matt one of Boston’s 100 most eligible bachelors. But flying back and forth between the two locations became too much. And back injuries derailed Matt twice. According to his family, Matt had always said that if things got too complicated in his life, he would move to Vermont. (He had worked at a summer camp in Marlboro and had fond memories of the Green Mountain State. Plus, at the Ocean Club he had met some fun-loving girls from Burlington.) In 1989, Matt arrived in Vermont with an offer to manage a restaurant. Instead, he took a job bartending at another one. Soon, this bachelor would meet the woman who captured his heart, Sheryl Bellman. They soon became inseparable. The year they both turned 50 — in 1998 — they decided to get married. Sheryl suggested that…
Matthew Henry Young was born on May 1, 1948, in New York City, the son of Leo and Shirley (Stein) Young. He had two sisters, Mandy and Libby. Matt grew up on Long Island, and at age 13 asked to go to boarding school. He went to Blair Academy in New Jersey, where he made lifelong friends, and later graduated from Alfred University with a degree in English. Matt briefly attended the New England School of Law in Boston, then got a job managing Dom’s, a high-end northern Italian restaurant on Commercial Street. It was a move that changed the course of his life. Matt had been fascinated from an early age by what was happening in the kitchen, and had long wanted to run a restaurant. He stayed at Dom’s for seven or so years. Matt finally opened his own restaurant, the Ocean Club, on Martha’s Vineyard in 1979. Influenced by the cuisine at Dom’s, his place became famous for its innovative gourmet food. It was also the go-to cool spot, frequented by locals as well as the island’s famous summer residents, including Lillian Hellman, John Belushi, Carly Simon, Jackie Onassis, William Styron and many others. Going to the Ocean Club meant having a good time — some said it was “like an event”— and the restaurant became legendary. Matt was the designer of it all. In 1985, some investors approached Matt asking him to open a second restaurant. And he did: the Cambridge Ocean Club in the Charles Hotel. During the time that he ran it, a local magazine named Matt one of Boston’s 100 most eligible bachelors. But flying back and forth between the two locations became too much. And back injuries derailed Matt twice. According to his family, Matt had always said that if things got too complicated in his life, he would move to Vermont. (He had worked at a summer camp in Marlboro and had fond memories of the Green Mountain State. Plus, at the Ocean Club he had met some fun-loving girls from Burlington.) In 1989, Matt arrived in Vermont with an offer to manage a restaurant. Instead, he took a job bartending at another one. Soon, this bachelor would meet the woman who captured his heart, Sheryl Bellman. They soon became inseparable. The year they both turned 50 — in 1998 — they decided to get married. Sheryl suggested that…