![]() In addition to The Floridian, Samp owned Fort Lauderdale eatery Ernie’s Bar-B-Q on Federal Highway, which he sold in 2017, moving its conch fritters, Bimini bread and other items to The Floridian menu. And if one needed help, we were there for each other,” she said.īutch Samp’s ex-wife, Rose Donnelly, left, and former longtime Floridian employee Sue Kaplan tell stories about Samp while sitting next to a memorial placed at his seat in the restaurant on Tuesday. ![]() “We were all neighbors, and we all stuck together. The Floridian survived because of the community, both customers and nearby business owners, Donnelly said, recalling “Mario from Paesano’s,” “Abe over at the gas station,” “McCarthy’s newspaper store” and “Ben ’s barber shop.” We did whatever we could to get the business going,” Donnelly said, noting that at 9 years old Chris earned money to buy a bicycle by making toast. “We were young - I was like 27 and Butch was 30 - and we were hard workers. She and Samp came to Fort Lauderdale from Chicago, where they had owned a restaurant. Rose Donnelly was married to Samp for 25 years before they divorced, and they had their two sons, Chris and Jake. He was just a really friendly guy, and a great host,” she said. Anthony Catholic School, where she said Samp was “a big supporter.” Leslie Scutellaro taught Samp’s son, Jake, at nearby St. Vincent and Leslie Scutellaro, 30-year Fort Lauderdale residents, dropped in to pay their respects to the man they called “the gateway into the community.” Children, they’d always come up to him and give him a hug and a kiss.” “We were just saying that he had such a rapport with the young people that came in here. “He was just an institution in this town,” said Fort Lauderdale retiree Mark Dibuono, while seated with friends at Samp’s table. Cammy Pierro, manager of The Floridian, hugs attorney Fred Haddad during a gathering of friends on Tuesday.
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