Lygon Street Butcher Donati’s Fine Meats Will Live On in Carlton

“Where else can you shop for benchmark cotechino while listening to opera or Phillip Glass,” wrote Michael Harden last year, about the closure of beloved Carlton butcher, Donati’s Fine Meats.

There are few stores like Leo Donati’s Lygon Street institution, with its landmark red awning, fine art and stylish, bespectacled founder. So when Donati announced his retirement after 53 years last November, it was not hard to imagine a collective sigh across Melbourne. 

But 2026 brings good news for Donati fans – the butcher will live on, with King and Godfree’s Jamie Valmorbida today announcing his purchase of the business.

“I was buying a Christmas ham with Mum and... asked Leo when he was closing,” Valmorbida says. “He said, ‘It’s for sale, why don’t you buy it?’ As I walked out he called, ‘Well, are you going to buy it?’ I said, ‘You’ve planted the seed’. It happened quickly after that.”

In a statement Valmorbida said, “I’ve long admired what Leo and [his son] Marcello have built over 53 years... Donati’s is one of Melbourne’s great traditional butchers. Customers can expect the same products, recipes and standards that have defined Donati’s for generations to continue”.

Marcello will remain as an advisor during the transition, and current butcher Sam Spagnuolo will stay on at the shop, too.

They’re joined by new hire, executive chef Mark Glenn, a Cumulus Inc and Dinner by Heston alum who recently led the kitchen at Chris Lucas’s now-shuttered Canberra outpost Carlotta. 

“We’re not here to reinvent Donati’s. Right now it’s business as usual,” Valmorbida tells Broadsheet. “I understand the responsibility. Donati’s means a lot to people. Everything people love about Donati’s stays exactly the same.”

“Marcello and I feel confident Donati’s is in the right hands as it moves into its next chapter,” said Leo in the same statement. 

There is something right about a Lygon Street icon passing into the hands of someone similarly tied to the Valmorbida’s grandfather, Carlo, took over the heritage-listed King & Godfree in 1955 and established it as one of Melbourne’s most iconic food institutions.

The Donati’s purchase adds to what is already shaping up to be a busy year for Valmorbida, who opening three new businesses in the King & Godfree site, just down the street from the meat shop.

Garfield pizzeria, as well as an osteria and basement-level cocktail bar (names not yet revealed), are all slated to open in 2026.

Donati’s Fine Meats
402 Lygon Street, Carlton 
(03) 9347 4948

Hours:
Mon 6.30am–5pm
Tue to Thu 7am–5pm
Fri 6am–5pm
Sat 6am–1pm