Sirio Maccioni, who founded the landmark New York City restaurant Le Cirque frequented by the rich and famous, died in his hometown of Tuscany, Italy, on Monday, according to multiple media reports. He was 88.
Maccioni, frequently referred to as the restaurant’s “ringmaster,” opened Le Cirque in 1974 at the Mayfair Hotel. In 1997, the restaurant moved to a larger space in the New York Palace Hotel before heading to the Bloomberg Building in 2006.
The restaurant filed for bankruptcy in 2017 and later closed, but there are Le Cirque offshoots in Las Vegas, New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Dubai.
Le Cirque was famous largely because of the famous names who flocked there, including movie stars, politicians, fashion industry icons and wealthy businesspeople.
“Le Cirque came along at a time when fashion was important and gossip was powerful,” Gael Greene, former New York Magazine restaurant critic, was quoted as saying. “It was the beginning of the era of dining out as theater and intrigue, when restaurants were not just a place to have lunch.”
The restaurant was also known for its innovative menu, popularizing creme brulee and pasta primavera as part of an offering that highlighted Italian and French fare. Le Cirque attracted well-known chefs, including Daniel Boulud, David Bouley and pastry chef Jacques Torres.
Maccioni enrolled in hotel school and trained as a waiter in post-war Italy before coming to Manhattan in 1956. He worked as a waiter and dining room manager at Delmonico’s.
His three sons, Marco, Mauro and Mario, worked in the business with their father.
“I saw opening a restaurant as serious business—a profession that is respectable if you are stupid enough to do it,” Maccioni said in his biography. “You know, when I die, I hope that is all they say about me: that I made it respectable to be a waiter.”
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