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FeedMarco Polo
An Italian restaurateur rediscovers a new world—and finds a chance to succeed in a way his predecessors have not.
(page 1 of 6)
Ristorante Marco
3801 Kennett Pike, Wilmington, 254-5427
www.ristorantemarco.com
Prices
Appetizers $5-$11
Entrées $15-$30
Grilled entrées $27-$35
Recommended Dishes
Antipasto Cilentano, risotto pescatore, gnocchi alla Sorrentina, maiale alla Abbruzzese (double-cut pork chop)
Gregarious owner Marco Rizzo, at the behest of his regulars at Ristorante Marco in Bear, opened a second location in Greenville this summer.
The new Marco is in the same Greenville retail strip that had become sort of a pet cemetery for upscale Italian joints. The former Amalfi and Sapori Ristorante Italiano came and went in the exact same spot.
So Rizzo knows it’s not an ideal location, but he has an asset his predecessors lacked. Besides a good menu that highlights several seafood options, Ristorante Marco’s greatest advantage may be Rizzo himself.
He’s the kind of owner who lives, eats and breathes his ristorante. He splits his days between the Bear and Greenville locations, and takes all his meals there. He makes a concerted effort to get to know his regulars and has famously absorbed a few of their own recipes into his menus. (Good luck finding Scaloppini alla Ed Richitelli anywhere else.) He tracked down and purchased a great selection of wines from in and around his hometown of Santa Maria de Castellabate—a gorgeous coastal Italian hamlet—including Feudi di San Gregorio Taurasi, an award-winning red, and Kratos Maffini, a buxom white. Marco gladly recommends a bottle, he pours, he chats, he mingles, and so forth.
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