THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Marco

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Marco Restaurant Review:

Swanky Theater District spot Pigalle is so fluently French it may be a stretch to imagine chef-owner Marc Orfaly running any other type of kitchen. Well, warm up those mental muscles, because Marco, Orfaly's North End trattoria, is no less effortlessly Roman. The successor to Trattoria a Scalinatella has retained the latter's rustic chic; the second-story space is all wood and brick, graced with a wine bar and a fireplace. As for the menu, it's almost too classic, from pork chop Milanese to linguine alle vongole to panna cotta. Since Orfaly is one of those rare chefs who can have his cake and eat it too when it comes to tweaking culinary tradition---think sardines with pickled carrots or walnut polenta---we hope he'll throw a few more such crumbs our way eventually. In the meantime, though, we'll fully enjoy our boutique-label wines and simple handmade pastas.