Le Cirque: Third Time Charmed?

By JULIETTE ROSSANT Le Cirque 2000 is dead: long live Le Cirque! Trumpets sound. The press flocks (see articles listed below). Like any other restaurant opening, Le Cirque is not quite ready. Although the restaurant opens tomorrow, May 31, 2006, a visit to the official website reads: Website Under Construction There is also mention of job openings for "qualified and experienced waitstaff." Of course, Le Cirque is no ordinary restaurant, even by Fine Dining standards -- and this is its third incarnation. Will the third time be charmed at a restaurant "where the worlds of food, fashion, art and culture converge"? Let's see... This is the American birthplace, as it were, of many top chefs, and its most famous son, Daniel Boulud, had his second, American birth there. In fact, Restaurant Daniel now occupies Le Cirque's first site, East 65th Street, but Le Cirque's cost exceeds even Daniel's: $16 million, designed by Adam Tihany and Costas Kondylis. Thank heavens the restaurant is booked for June and July -- and how, not, with a documentary film-maker (Andrew Rossi) thrown in for good measure? Pierre Schaedelin comes home to helm the kitchen, returned from loan to Martha Stewart, but it is restaurateur Sirio Maccioni and family that are the bedrock of the restaurant -- read about the story in Sirio's own words in Sirio: The Story of My Life and Le Cirque (Wiley 2004). Le Cirque: One Beacon Court 151 East 58th Street New York, NY 10022 tel (212) 644-0202 - reservations fax (212) 644-0388 - or jobs@lecirque.com for jobs Video: Today Show (requires MS WMP and Explorer running in MS Windows) Super Chef: Daniel Boulud Related news: Variety International Herald Tribune New York Times Journal News (Bloomberg) New York Sun New York Times New York Post New York Observer New York Post New York Daily News New York Magazine Previous articles: Richard Hamilton: Test Drive a Bonnet Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging, cirque --> back to superchefblog