It lost a Times star last year, but Le Cirque is forging ahead with plans to go global. The East Side French restaurant is cooking up a London outpost for next year, and a Middle East branch could open in 2009. “We have offers in London, Dubai, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi,” confirms Sirio Maccioni, Le Cirque’s 74-year-old owner. “I have three sons”—who with him run Le Cirque; its crosstown offshoot, Osteria del Circo; and its Las Vegas, Mexico City, and Dominican Republic incarnations—“and I think this is something they should do.” This is no licensing or consulting deal; the Maccionis will directly run the new locations. “We are negotiating with a luxury hotel in London,” confirms their restaurant consultant Elizabeth Blau. And the Mideast? “We’re talking to them in January,” Maccioni says.

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Related:

• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Beth Landman
• Table of Contents: Nov 26, 2007 issue of New York | Subscribe!