At Bar Marco, every night of service feels like attending a friend’s intimate dinner party. The 34-seat dining room is tucked inside a historic firehouse in the Strip District, walled with its original glazed brick under high, ornately filigreed tin ceilings. Named for the executive chef’s friend and mentor from his youthful busboy days at a red sauce joint, Bar Marco puts its focus on warmth and hospitality.
Owner Kevin Cox and owner/executive chef Justin Steel have been honing Bar Marco’s charms since opening on New Year’s Eve of 2012. Justin has chosen to focus on regional Italian food, with heavy influences from Piemontese and coastal cuisines. The menu executes these recipes using Western Pennsylvania ingredients, sourced from the restaurant’s many connections with local and regional farms.
Its wine program, featuring only natural wines, pulls on the same ethos, championing small producers whose wines amplify the beauty of their regions and grape varietals, while reducing the amount of strain on natural resources. The restaurant’s candle-lit, subterranean wine room offers an in-depth dining experience with five courses and wine pairings. In 2019, Bar Marco was awarded a semi-finalist nod for Outstanding Wine Program from the James Beard Foundation.
This neighborhood gathering place has always been eager to step in to help the Pittsburgh community, whether it’s by supporting local farms or teaming up with Adda Coffee and Tea House and Chef Jamilka Borges to cook over 500 meals for local non-profit organizations. For the first several years, all of Adda’s snacks and baked goods were made in the Bar Marco kitchen, cementing a partnership between our spaces.
Bar Marco and Adda Coffee & Tea House are both dedicated to elevating hospitality in our establishments as well as creating community. We’re very excited for our next meal at Bar Marco and the collaborations to come!
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