Nothing comes between Silvano Marchetto and a great taco.
The silver-maned restaurateur was so badly beaten by muggers over the weekend that they fractured his trachea, cops said Monday.
But Marchetto, 70, didn’t report the attack to police, sources said. Instead, less than than two hours after being assaulted and robbed, he posted a picture on Facebook — of a beef taco from one of his favorite joints — and left it to hospital workers to finally call the police nearly a day later, law-enforcement sources said.
“I am fine, but I can’t say any more,’’ Marchetto, who owned the now-shuttered Greenwich Village celebrity hot spot Da Silvano, told The Post by phone.
Marchetto’s daughter said her dad was released from the hospital Monday — although it’s unclear whether he made it to a scheduled hearing in Manhattan divorce court the same day. His estranged wife, Marisa Acocella Marchetto, a cartoonist and author of “Cancer Vixen,” is fighting him over money.
Marchetto’s bizarre saga began at around 12:30 a.m. Sunday as he was returning to his Village home from a bar, police said. The thugs put him in a chokehold in the building lobby and threw him to the ground, according to sources.
“Give me your money!” one of the robbers demanded, he told police.
They then ripped Marchetto’s pants pocket, at which point he handed over his wallet, which had $1,812 in US dollars, $100 in British pounds and $100 in Swiss francs, he said, according to police.
The robbers fled with his cash, the restaurateur told cops.
But instead of immediately reporting the incident to police, Marchetto headed upstairs to his apartment — and happily posted the online foodie photo at 2:12 a.m.
“Beef tang onions super Blak ant,’’ the eatery guru wrote, apparently referring to the lengua, or beef tongue tacos from the Black Ant restaurant on the Lower East Side, where he shared drinks with the owner Friday, according to the eatery’s workers.
It wasn’t until 5 p.m. Sunday that Marchetto even decided to get medical attention at Lenox Health Greenwich Village clinic because he still had a sore neck, he told cops.
He was transferred to Lenox Hill Hospital on the Upper East Side at around 9 p.m., and the hospital called cops to report his attack, according to sources, who added Marchetto made contact with police for the first time around 9:40 p.m.
One police source said the fact Marchetto didn’t report the crime himself is a potential “red flag” that something could be amiss, but another said older people sometimes avoid the cops because they don’t want family members to think they can’t care for themselves.
Additional reporting by Elizabeth Rosner and Emily Saul
