[Pigging by Wilfrid: May 12, 2008]
As Lutèce, La Caravelle, and La Côte Basque - not to mention LCB Brasserie Rachou - fade into memory...
As San Domenico prepares to leave Central Park South, and Cipriani on Fifth Avenue bounces from a "no stars (poor)" Times review to the threatened revocation of its liquor license...
Sirio Maccioni's Le Cirque re-invents itself yet again and sails serenely on, pretty much packed most nights for dinner, the canteen of choice for the confidently wealthy, the definitively sun-tanned, the facially upholstered. It gets knocked down, it picks itself up, dusts itself off, and raises its game; a tribute, surely, to Maccioni's inextinguishable energy and ambition, heading into a fourth decade as ring-master - compare Henri Soulé's mere quarter century at Le Pavillon.
The 2006 re-location to a huge crescent-shaped first floor space on one side of Bloomberg's One Beacon Court complex won praise for the spectacular Tihany design, but reserved appreciation for the cuisine. At the time, I commented that "the costume and cosmetic surgery choices of our fellow guests...frequently took the focus off the food", and complained about unexciting and unbalanced dishes (right here ).
Sirio, to his credit, seems to have no interest in presiding over mediocre food. Swiftly, a new chef was installed - Christophe Bellanca, formerly of L.A.'s L'Orangerie. Frankula of the Times - far from a natural-born Le Cirque devotee - conferred three stars.
This is New York in 2006, so prices don't improve. A good, hot plate of foie with a sauterne-persimmon sauce, will extract $44 from your week's wages.
Anyway, I am only here to mention that the evolution continues, with the restaurant finding ways to grow into the largely disused right hand wing of its semi-circle. To your left, as you enter, the buzz of the dining room; to your right, past the bar, a scattering of tables grouped around a spectacular, vertical, glass-walled cylinder of a wine cellar.
The casual café menu originally served in this space has been abandoned. You can now walk in and take the restaurant menu at these tables, without getting dressed up and polishing your tails. This includes, at lunch, an attractive $42 prix fixe, featuring a fricassée of frog's legs as chubby and tasty as any in town, and a long list of entrées: the signature spud-wrapped sea bass, for example.
Supplements will creep up and bite you, of course. The sea bass adds $15 to the check. Twice I've been unable to resist blowing the same on the exquisitely composed king crab dish. While rifling through your wallet, Le Cirque is generous with quality ingredients: three chilled cannons of crab meat are flanked by a bijou roll of chilled crab salad in a dashi gelée wrapper, dabbed with caviar, and a deeply flavored avocado parfait.
The regularly priced dishes are pretty as a picture too. Bent on a light lunch one day, I hazarded the curry chicken salad. In the land of my birth, you'd call this "Coronation" chicken - and here it was deconstructed. A generous mound of tender, curry-yellow chicken chunks studded with raisins; a daub of sour cream; a scoop of mango chutney; the green salad leaf elements; spaced coolly around a large white plate. I resisted the urge to make a huge sandwich out of it.
For lunch and dinner, there's usually a special risotto. Frighteningly green, this tasty version featured slivers of lobster.
In the rear of the casual space, a few armchairs and couches announce Sirio's newest project, Le Cirque's "Wine Lounge". Anhd here we have an extensive "bar" menu, which mixes the classics never far from Sirio's heart - country terrine a l’ancienne, tarte flambée, tortellini stuffed with guanciale - with smart-casual suggestions like cheeseburger sliders, and a cold cut plate featuring pata negra and culatello.
Where the restaurant's wine-list is deep and costly - it lists half-bottles of '47 Cheval Blanc (a few thousand bucks, don't look) - the wine lounge's glass selection is surprisingly fair and flexible. Of thirty or so glasses, at least twenty-five, including an N.V. champagne, are priced under $20 (this is Le Cirque; that's cheap), and all are offered in tasting sizes at less than half the price. Consequently, perhaps, the list is weak in red Bordeaux - there's no red Burgundy - heavy on Italian and American choices.
In addition to enjoying three spontaneous lunches in the unbuttoned section, I also had the fun of a full dinner which, by chance, coincided with Sirio's birthday. The occasion was marked, with great drollery, by a mariachi band trailing the ring-master around his domain.
Bellanca's precision is appreciated. The lobster is not "tough", as I'd found it in 2006; it's tender, gloriously colorful, dressed with vanilla Cognac, and served over a celeriac purée.
The pork plate featured belly, cheek and foot - who needs loin, anyway? The foot element was, of course, de-boned and crisped up. The braised cheek was my favorite element. And the seasonal accompaniments: asparagus, morels, sweet peas and a pea raviolo. Well judged.
Cheese service is proper, from a trolley which makes a stately progress around the room.
Dessert, again, reflects the restaurant's flexibility. In addition to a list of composed desserts, you are offered a selection of miniature "signatures" - choose two and pair with an ice cream or sorbet. Improbably, that's a coconut-pineapple rice pudding at the bottom of the large glass. As a change from the restaurant's famous crème brûlée, I enjoyed the Meyer lemon and praline sablé breton (center). My notes mention a blood orange sorbet, but I confess the ice cream in the photo looks chocolatey.
Le Cirque is not for everyone. Sirio and the staff have their favorites among the millionaires and royalty who have been snacking here for years. If this distresses you, look elsewhere. And despite the occasional bargains which can be found - the lunch, for example if supplements are avoided - the restaurant is unashamedly high-priced. Like La Grenouille, and in its own way San Domenico, Le Cirque does not particularly solicit the custom of diners who baulk at $30 appetizers. While even upscale Manhattan restaurants are trepidatious of $50 entrée prices, you can easily pay $60 for steak or lobster here.
Indeed, the spud-wrapped sea bass on a red wine sauce, Daniel Boulud's contribution to Le Cirque's history, is simply priced for its fame: $52.
What's important is that the restaurant is now upholding its side of the bargain. In addition to the glamorous landscape and gracious service - on both the formal and casual wings - a chef working with care, accuracy and taste.
An excellent web-site too, with all detail, available here.
