The Italian Market is one of our favorite spots in town, a rare combination of tourist destination and amazing resource for people that live nearby. Whether you’re seeking fresh meats, fresh pasta, mostly fresh produce, aged cheeses, or the best tortillas in the city, the Italian Market has you covered. What are you waiting for, go to the Italian Market right now! Well, don’t go if it’s after 6pm, there’s not much happening over there at night.

At the end of last year, the Italian Market lost one of its longest tenured businesses, as D’Angelo’s Specialty Meats closed its doors after operating at 907-909 S. 9th St. for over a century. It’s always a shame to see a family business close its doors, but according to Michael Klein, owner and operator Sonny D’Angelo was just ready to throw in the (surely bloody) towel after working there since he was 17 years old. As he’s now 67, we’d say he’s put in his time and then some. We’ll certainly miss the business though. As the name suggests, D’Angelo’s offered meats ranging from typical (beef) to the atypical (elk) to the unexpected (iguana?!?). And they were famous for their sausages, too. Alas, nevermore.

If you look carefully at the photo above, you’ll notice that the buildings that previously housed the butcher shop are now available for sale.

The properties are listed for sale on Loopnet for $800K, and could represent an interesting development opportunity. The northern building only goes up one story, and a new owner could build an apartment unit upstairs. The southern building already has an apartment unit above, and the retail spaces are already combined, to easily accommodate a new business tenant. We don’t know that anyone will be willing to pay the list price for these properties though, unless they’re also looking to reopen the shuttered butcher shop.

Here’s the good news: In the aforementioned Michael Klein story, he notes that the former operator has expressed a willingness to train someone interested in taking over the business. Hey, maybe this isn’t the best development opportunity we’ve ever presented. But if you have a keen interest in getting into the meat business, this might just be the deal you’ve been waiting for.