Le Cirque 2005
Step right up to CPS! But will Kissinger be able to find it for takeout?
Sirio Maccioni has finally found a new big top. On New Year’s Day, Le Cirque 2000 ends its seven-year run in the Palace Hotel—having sated the likes of Ahmet Ertegun, Rudy Giuliani, and Ron Perelman. By Labor Day, Maccioni plans to open a new place in the former Ritz-Carlton on Central Park South. The building is being converted into condos, and he’s close to buying its restaurant space (brokered by Corcoran’s Neal Sroka) for around $10 million. When Maccioni first moved to the Palace, his landlord, the Sultan of Brunei, paid the build-out costs. But management changed, the hotel’s union got more expensive, and, he says, “Here, I can’t change a light bulb without permission from Landmarks.” Being sultan of his own space will be a relief. The only trick is to get the power lunchers to follow. He’s not worried: “If I just wanted to make money, I’d open four pizza-and-crème-caramel-to-go places in all four corners of Manhattan,” Maccioni shrugs. “My ego has already been paid.”
—Deborah Schoeneman