Updated 11 am, Thursday
The Aquinnah Shop Restaurant sits atop a piece of property that offers its guests one of the most impressive views on Martha’s Vineyard. This week The Times learned that the restaurant and the 2.5-acre parcel on which it sits, which has been in the same family for generations, is on the market, the result of a forced sale.
A longstanding disagreement between brothers David Vanderhoop and Matthew “Culley” Vanderhoop, co-owners of the property, has led to the sale, which was ordered by the Dukes County Probate Court.
The property is assessed at $1.76 million, according to the Aquinnah town assessor’s office.
Dan Perry, attorney for David Vanderhoop, has listed the property with Jim Feiner, owner of Feiner Real Estate in Chilmark. The property and building is listed at $1.47 million. It does not include the restaurant name, Mr. Feiner said.
Mr. Feiner told The Times the court’s order was the result of a petition to partition. “That’s not an uncommon thing here,” he said. “It’s one of the tools that attorneys have to force the sale of a property to settle disputes among family members.”
Mr. Feiner said he has made overtures to individuals to see if there is some way to maintain local control, to include a purchase by the tribe or the town, but without success.
Napoleon Madison, medicine man for the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head, built the shop in 1945. His daughter-in-law, Anne Vanderhoop, went to work in the shop and ran it, and turned it into an Island institution, with a reputation for first-rate chowder and pies. The mother of five sons, including David and Matthew, and one daughter, Aquinnah selectman and owner of the Orange Peel bakery, Julianne Vanderhoop, Mrs. Vanderhoop, a respected Islander, told The Times, “The whole family is very upset about it.”
When Leonard Vanderhoop, David and Matthew’s grandfather died, he left five-ninths of the property, the majority interest, to David Vanderhoop, a former Gay Head selectman, and four-ninths to Matthew, until recently the operator of the restaurant.
Reached by The Times for comment, William “Buddy” Vanderhoop, a well-known Aquinnah charter captain, did not hide his displeasure with his brother David. “I can’t believe my idiot brother is going to sell out a business that’s been in the family for generations … He has other land he could have sold.”
In recent years the Aquinnah Shop, a restaurant with arguably one of the best views in the world, also experienced a culinary resurgence under the guidance of chef Jacob Vanderhoop, son of Matthew Vanderhoop, who began cooking in his family’s restaurant when he was 12. Jacob became head chef in 2012 after training at Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School in Cambridge. He is traveling in Europe and not available for comment.
David Vanderhoop could not be reached for comment.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Napoleon Madison as Napoleon Vanderhoop and the great grandfather of the Vanderhoop children. The story also failed to reference Julianne Vanderhoop.