I understand that this is handwritten, but the owner is in love with this style and I'm just banging my head against the wall to find anything even similar in style.  It's not the type of font I would normally gravitate to, so I'm out of my depth.  Does anyone have any thoughts on something similar?  I would prefer free, but I'll be happy to pay for a high quality font if it looks great.  Thoughts?

What you posted is a simplified blackletter style—and this website has a font list for that very style.

Not on that list, but very similar to your image—Millennium Blackletter.

Also, not on the list: Elfen Fraktur and Astloch, and perhaps Almendra Display.