Fans of imported Italian meats, cheeses, chocolate and other products, plus fresh-made sandwiches, can now buy them at a new market in downtown Salt Lake City.

Granato’s, the legendary Italian gourmet market that started in Utah in 1948, has partnered with the LaSalle Group to open The Market at Salt & Olive restaurant at 270 S. 300 East.

The Market includes a counter, display cases for fresh items, and a grocery area with products like olive oil, potato chips and balsamic vinegar. A refrigerated case holds cold imported sodas and bottled water along with packages of fresh pasta.

People will be able to order sandwiches at the counter, which will have a self-serve olive bar next to it. A chalkboard on the wall displays a menu of coffee drinks, which will be made with Lavazza coffee from Italy.

The Market will also feature the viral trompe l’oeil fruit desserts from Fillings & Emulsions, fresh pasta from Funaro’s Perfect Pasta, and fresh sausage from Gerome’s Market, along with gelato.

Dave Ipaktchian, a managing partner with Salt & Olive, which opened in 2021, said partnering with Granato’s was inspired by the Eataly stores in cities like New York, Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles that combine an Italian restaurant, an Italian market and cooking classes into a one-stop shop.

Ipaktchian said he and the LaSalle Group wanted to do something similar at Salt & Olive, which will have the market in the front as guests walk in, before they round the corner and see the bistro portion of the restaurant, where pizza and pasta are served in a casual environment. The back portion of the restaurant, or “ristorante,” as they call it, is a white tablecloth area for more upscale dining.

The Market at Salt & Olive is open from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., and then starting Sept. 1, it will be open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., to accommodate early risers seeking coffee, people needing groceries for a quick dinner at home, and those craving dessert after a night out. Everything sold in the market will eventually be available for delivery through food delivery apps.

“There’s so many apartments that have been built around us in downtown,” said Ipaktchian, who knew Frank Granato, the founder of Granato’s. “Many people love the delivery aspect, the cook-at-home aspect, or take-home aspect, and that’s really what combining with Granato’s helps us with.”

A bonus is the state wine store across the street, where people can drop in for a bottle of wine to go with their fresh pasta, he said.

The Market at Salt & Olive will be the fourth location where people can buy Granato’s imports. Granato’s also owns food halls in Holladay at 4044 S. 2700 East and in Salt Lake City at 1391 S. 300 West, plus a market inside the Salt Lake City International Airport.

Growing Granato’s

Granato’s was founded by Frank Granato, who started the business out of the back of his truck in the 1940s, said his grandson by the same name, who now owns and operates the business.

The focus was on importing Italian goods and distributing them in areas like Price, Tooele and near Kennecott, where Utah Italians were looking to buy them, the younger Frank Granato said.

In the 1960s, Granato’s operated out of a huge warehouse on 300 West in what is now known as the Ballpark neighborhood. A few years ago, the scaled-down warehouse became Granato’s Eatery, a food hall and warren of kitchens with 31 tenants and eight counters, for businesses like Salt Egg City, Fillings & Emulsions, Vostok Burger and Crack’n a Cup.

In the late ’80s to early ’90s, Frank Granato’s father, Sam Granato, started making sandwiches and selling them at the market locations, and that continues today.

Frank Granato said the Holladay location used to be a full-size Granato’s in the ’90s but was also turned into a food hall, with Granato’s Market taking a smaller footprint.

With the arrival of grocery stores like Harmons, Granato said people stopped making it a weekend “event” to shop at Granato’s, wanting the ability to buy their imported meats and toilet paper in the same place.

“So we adapted,” Granato said, turning the two Granato’s markets into food halls.

Today, Granato’s markets provide customers with the same conversations and imported products they’ve always been known for, Granato said, without the seasonal items they used to sell, like panettone at Christmas.

In about a year, foodies up north will be able to visit a Granato’s in Ogden, at the corner of 23rd Street and Lincoln Avenue. Granato said the market will be in the basement of an apartment building, as part of a “mini food hall” that also has a sit-down restaurant.

“Ogden is really booming,” Granato said. “It’s taken off.”

Correction • Aug. 25, 2:17 p.m.: This story has been updated to correct the name of the market and accurately reflect the partnership between Granato’s and the LaSalle Group’s Salt & Olive restaurant.