Amid the stalls and shops of the Italian Market, word has been spreading of the impending retirement of Sonny D'Angelo, whose grandfather opened the family butcher shop on Ninth Street just south of Christian Street in 1910. When D'Angelo, 67, hangs up his apron at the end of the month after a half-century of work, D'Angelo's Specialty Meats is due to close. The building at 907-09 S. Ninth is being offered for sale privately, according to a neighbor briefed on the plans.

"My customers have been talking about [the closing], and they're quite upset," said Mariella Esposito, who started working at her own family's kitchen emporium, Fante's, in 1981, the year that Sonny D'Angelo took over for his father.