De Marco's Pizzeria & Restaurant

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This venue is closed.

It's a classic restaurant-family problem: After living and breathing food with their parents for decades, the kids grow up and ship out to the Big City, leaving the family business in the dust. Fortunately, in the case of Dominick De Marco, proprietor of Brooklyn’s celebrated Di Fara Pizza in Midwood, his daughter Maggie's move to Manhattan means extending the family tradition, not leaving it. At the new location, Maggie and crew create pizza, which, while not a facsimile in quality, reasonably emulates Di Fara’s three-cheese formula of buffalo- and whole-milk mozzarella topped with Parmigiano-Reggiano, over a sauce made from authentic San Marzano tomatoes. Round pies have thin crusts; square pies are thicker, and use a meat-based sauce that spills over the sides. Toppings are fresh: baby artichokes, sautéed broccoli rabe, and mini pepperoni discs are all worthy. You can also choose from three types of pasta in nine different sauces or baked dishes like ziti and eggplant Parmigiana. The giant prosciutto calzone, about the size of a 2-liter bottle, serves four or five. With its candlelit tables and racks of wine against the wall, the restaurant lacks the no-frills legitimacy of its Brooklyn progenitor, but Papa is surely quite proud of his daughter's debut. — Stephen Weiss

An adjacent takeout space serves pizza by the pie or slice, along with hot sandwiches, salads, a modest pasta selection, and fried mozzarella.

Large round pie, $19; large square pie, $26