June 17, 2009

Dinner at Le Cirque, one of my most favorite restaurants

On Monday evening, I shared a most pleasant and delicious dinner in New York City with Susan Magrino, my publicist and Robin Marino, my president and CEO of merchandising.  We ate at Le Cirque, one of my favorite restaurants and one of the most celebrated and revered food establishments in America.  Le Cirque is owned and run meticulously well by Sirio Maccioni, with the help of his wife, Egidiana and sons, Mario, Marco, and Mauro.  I might add that the Maccionis have been guests on my television show and Egidiana has shared some of her homey Italian cooking with us.  Sirio first opened the original Le Cirque in 1974 at the Mayfair Hotel.  In 1997, he moved to a larger space in the New York Palace Hotel and in May of 2006, the Maccioni family celebrated a grand re-opening party in their current location at One Beacon Court in an amazing space designed by architect/designer Adam D. Tihany and architect Costas Kondylis.

As I already mentioned, the food, as usual, was superb.  For an appetizer, I ordered tuna with avocado tapenade, clementines, and sesame tuile.  The chef, Craig Hopson, sent out an amuse bouche (a bite-sized chef's selection) of a cucumber and cumin gazpacho and also a mini baked potato topped with cream fraiche, cheese, and bacon bits.  My main course was dover sole meuniere and a delicate amuse of steamed black sea bass with morels and rhubarb.  One of the reasons Susan, Robin, and I wanted to eat at Le Cirque was because we had heard that the Italian tenor, Andrea Bocelli, was also dining there that evening.  We waited and waited and he finally showed up, but I did not have an opportunity to take his picture.  Oh well, maybe next time. I love reading your comments and today my question is this - if you had dinner reservations at Le Cirque then who would you bring and why?

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