Coronavirus takes life of Moe the Butcher, 95, a Little Italy legend

Moe Albanese, pictured here in 2012, was a longtime fixture at Albanese Meats and Poultry, which closed its doors last month because of the pandemic lockdown.

Legendary Little Italy meat merchant Moe the Butcher, whose family-run shop on Elizabeth Street has served customers for generations, died of coronavirus-complications just a week shy of his 96th birthday.

Moe Albanese was a longtime fixture at Albanese Meats and Poultry, which like so many other businesses closed last month because of the coronavirus pandemic lockdown.

Flowers and candles are seen outside Albanese Meats and Poultry at 238 Elizabeth Street in Manhattan, New York on Thursday, April 9.(Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News)

Little Italy got the sad news of Moe’s death in a note taped to the store window on Thursday.

“On April 7, Moe succumbed to this (hideous) virus," the note said. "He lived a wonderful life and had a heart which was endless with love and compassion. Family was always number one and Moe was loved and admired by all who knew him. The Albanese family would like to thank everyone who touched his life. God bless.”

Albanese told the story of how his family opened the butcher shop in a 2012 interview with the Daily News.

Moe the Butcher, a legendary Little Italy meat merchant whose family ran a famed shop on Elizabeth Street for generations, died of coronavirus-complications just a week shy of his 96th birthday.(Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News)

“This block was inhabited by all Sicilians. I was born on this street. My family has had this store since 1945. My father opened the store and then he married my mother, who was also born on this block. Then my mother became a better butcher than my father. She was the butcher,” he recounted.

The store’s clientele was once factor workers and their families. But over the decades — as the neighborhood changed — Albanese’s customer base changed too.

“I’ve got some young people coming here, but they only come when they’re going to barbecue," Albanese told The News.

“They don’t come in here regularly. They don’t cook and they don’t know how to cook,” he said. "They go to the corner and they get a meal for 14 or 15 dollars. I think if I make $50 today, all day, that’s a lot. I have a couple of restaurants that keep me afloat. Otherwise, I couldn’t stay.”

After the business closed in the lockdown, Albanese’s granddaughter, Jennifer Prezioso, gave updates about the store and her grandfather on Facebook and Instagram. She’d hoped the place would re-open in time for Albanese’s 96th birthday on April 15.

On Tuesday, Prezioso announced that Albanese was hospitalized for coronavirus complications.

She broke the news of his death in a pair of tributes on social media Wednesday and Thursday.

“This was a sudden 24 hours for all of us, but when you are with someone who’s 95, the fear of death walks with you everyday,” she wrote. “I’m so proud to have given you a beautiful life in these final years. We gave them all quite a show didn’t we? I made you a promise a while ago, that when you died I would take over the store. Don’t worry I’ve caught the family bug, I’ll go back soon enough.”