M atty Matheson is driving down memory lane in a green 1963 Ford Galaxie. The skies above Fort Erie, Ontario, are gray, obscuring the Buffalo skyline across the lake. He points out some of the town’s landmarks.
“That building over there is where I was served my first beer,” says Matheson, clad in flannel shirt, trucker cap, and slip-on shoes. The clothes semi-cover his comprehensively tatted body, which recently found room for the names of his three kids, Macarthur, Rizzo, and Ozzy.
The chef and restaurateur turned Vice star turned The Bear producer and actor grew up here, but now lives with his wife and three kids in neighboring Ridgeway, about 10 minutes away. It’s an important distinction. Fort Erie bursts with American tourists in the summertime, but today is empty on a gray May morning. We pull into a parking space in a desolate part of town formerly dotted with strip clubs, not far from the factory where his mom once worked debirding airplane wings. {read}