Nov/Dec 2019

GOOD EATS: SAMMY’S ITALIAN

‘The Price Is Right & You Don’t Go Home Hungry’

By Rick Allen • Photos By John Jernigan

This SR 200 favorite is easy to take for granted because of its location and decades-long familiarity.

But once you taste Sammy Dedovic’s authentic recipes, you’ll know exactly why his namesake restaurant has built such a devoted following.

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he history of Sammy’s Italian is right there on the front of every menu: how as a boy Sammy Dedovic picked olives in Italy, that his family emigrated to the U.S. and started a family restaurant in New York in 1975 and that he discovered Ocala while here visiting cousins.

“I decided I wanted to open a restaurant here,” Sammy says of falling in love with the area. “I called my wife and said, ‘Sell everything! We’re moving here.’”

Sammy’s marked its 23rd year here in

OCALA’S GOOD LIFE retirement redefined

September.

What the history doesn’t say is that Sammy actually was born in Albania. His family moved to Naples and its olive groves in Italy when he was quite young. And some 40 years ago in New York he married Coleen.

“So you have an Albanian and an Irish running an Italian restaurant,” Sammy says, almost like setting up a long-told joke. “I’ve been Italian from 9am to 9pm