Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Co-founder of Southport Raw Bar
He was a printer from Brooklyn who came to Fort Lauderdale nearly 50 years ago to take a flyer on a new life. For Milton “Mickey” Kirtman, the gamble paid off.
“He wanted to be in the restaurant business,” his son Jay recalls. “He loved to boat, he loved to golf and he loved restaurants. He pretty much hit the trifecta.”
Kirtman, who died Feb. 27 at 84, lived a life of sun, fun and making other people happy. He co-founded Southport Raw Bar, a Fort Lauderdale institution whose famed bumper stickers (“Eat Fish Live Longer, Eat Clams Last Longer, Eat Oysters Love Longer”) are seen worldwide. He went on to own a string of restaurants, including Ernie’s BarB-Q, before retirement.
“He was from a different era, the old guys of Fort Lauderdale,” says Buddy Sherman, Southport’s current co-owner who started as a busboy in 1979. “He was a gentleman, always warm and generous, and he gave a lot of people a chance. He helped me to move up.”
In 1973, Kirtman and Carmine Ferrante — his friend from the Canarsie neighborhood of Brooklyn who also grew tired of the printing business — came to Fort Lauderdale. They scoped out a small beer shack and raw bar on Cordova Road named for its owner, Ted Twist. Twist was about to open a bigger lounge. Kirtman and Ferrante bought Ted Twist’s raw bar, perched on a canal with dockage, and renamed it Southport.
A slice of Fort Lauderdale history was born.
Southport was the type of place where Gregg Newell, the so-called Father of Spring Break and owner of the Button, could be seen drinking beer in his propeller-beanie cap and Fort Lauderdale resident Johnny Weissmuller, the actor known for playing “Tarzan,” would shout his jungle call-of-the-wild after downing a few.
“Fort Lauderdale was a sleepy little beach town when he got here,” Jay Kirtman says. “He loved it here because he loved the water. He was the consummate boater — he knew the Intracoastal and all the canals and inlets like you and I know I-95.”
A few years after opening Southport, Kirtman and Ferrante bought Ernie’s Bar-B-Q on Federal Highway from original owner Ernie Siebert. Jay Kirtman says Ferrante ran Southport while his father oversaw Ernie’s, a quirky place with a rooftop patio, barbecue pork on Bimini bread and libertarian slogans on the wall railing against taxation and banks (vestiges of Siebert, who reputedly stashed rum in the Bahamas to skirt taxes). After several ownership changes, Ernie’s closed after 60 years in 2017 and recently has been reborn as Andy’s Live Fire Grill.
Kirtman and Ferrante expanded Southport and bought the land it sits on. It became known for a relaxed, boater-friendly vibe, cold pitchers of beer and icy platters of oysters, clams and spiced shrimp. After 46 years, the restaurant is still thriving under an ownership group that includes Sherman, Ferrante’s son Patrick and original manager Jack Morrison.
Mickey Kirtman went on to run seven restaurants in South Florida, Jay says, including Dan’s Sub Shop in Lauderhill and the precursor to Shenanigan’s Sports Pub in Hollywood. In 1998 Kirtman sold his stake in Southport to allow the younger generation to take over.
Jay Kirtman says his father would make the rounds at his eateries early in the day, then hit the links or the water. Friends say Kirtman was happiest when at the wheel of one of his boats. He co-owned a 74-foot yacht with Ferrante named “Southport” and had another named “10-plus.”
“Because everything he did was better than a 10,” Jay Kirtman says.
Mickey Kirtman was devoted to his family, including his wife of 63 years, Sandra, and was touched by tragedy when his granddaughter Rebecca was killed in car accident at 16 in 2003. He helped son Jay launch Becca’s Closet, a nationwide nonprofit that collects and distributes donated prom dresses, carrying on a volunteer project that Rebecca began as a high school freshman.
Kirtman, who lived in Delray Beach at the time of his death and previously lived in Fort Lauderdale and Aventura, is survived by Sandra, sons Jay and Jeff, daughter Hara Light, three grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. A funeral service is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Sunday March 3 at Ramat Shalom Synagogue, 11301 W. Broward Blvd., Plantation, with interment following at Menorah Gardens in Southwest Ranches. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to Becca’s Closet at BeccasCloset.org or 954-424-9999.