MACHO MAN-GIA
Mugged Silvano is one tough beat-ball
Manhattan restaurateur Silvano Marchetto showed some real machismo Tuesday as he tried to shrug off a trachea-crushing mugging outside his shuttered Greenwich Village eatery. “Look, I’ve been at my home. How do I feel? Like a man!” he snapped to a Post reporter who asked him how he was feeling. The Italian-born 70year-old — wearing green pants, a floral shirt, a scarf around his neck and gold jewelry — said the midnight-Sunday incident was no big deal. “Nothing happened the other night,” Marchetto gruffly insisted while clutching a copy of The Post. The silver-haired restaurateur then mockingly responded, “Heeheeheehee,” when asked about his hospital stay — before disappearing into his Sixth Avenue apartment building. Marchetto told cops he had just returned to his building — the site of his former restaurant Da Silvano — around 12:30 a.m. Sunday when the muggers attacked. He said they put him in a chokehold and threw him to the ground while barking, “Give me your money!”
The assailants made off with Marchetto’s wallet containing $1,812 in US dollars, $100 in British pounds and $100 in Swiss francs, he said.
Marchetto didn’t report the robbery to cops — instead retreating to his apartment to post a Facebook picture of a beef-tongue taco from his favorite Lower East Side eatery Black Ant.
But around 9 p.m. Sunday, he went to Lenox Health Greenwich Village clinic because his neck was still sore. Hospital staff then notified police.
Marchetto was transferred to another hospital and treated for a fractured trachea.
Police sources said they’re looking for surveillance video from the mugging.
Da Silvano, a popular haunt among celebrities such as Madonna, Owen Wilson and Sean Penn, announced in December that it had served its final pasta dish after 41 years in business.
Marchetto blamed the closing on soaring rent and wages.
“I can’t do it anymore,” he told The Post at the time.
On Tuesday, Marchetto popped into the now-vacant eatery for about 20 minutes as a handful of workers moved out the last of the items.
“I’m working with moving stuff out because this place was sold or rented,” a worker said. Additional reporting by Larry Celona