Sirio Maccioni

Sirio Maccioni, a Manhattan restaurateur who made Le Cirque a headquarters for Manhattan’s rich and powerful in the 1980s and ’90s, and put dishes like pasta primavera and crème brûlée on the culinary map, died on Monday April 20 2020 in the town where he was born, Montecatini, in Tuscany, Italy. He was 88. His son Mauro confirmed the death through a family friend. Mr. Maccioni maintained a home in Montecatini as well as one in Manhattan. After the Colony closed its doors in 1971, Mr. Maccioni, in partnership with the Colony’s onetime chef, Jean Vergnes, opened Le Cirque in the Mayfair Hotel at Park Avenue and East 65th Street in 1974. Sirio Maccioni was born on April 5, 1932, in Montecatini, a spa town where the family owned a small farm. His father worked as a concierge. By the time Le Cirque 2000 closed its doors, on New Year’s Eve 2004, the fizz had gone out of the champagne. Its closing marked the end of a heady era in New York. Mr. Maccioni opened a new Le Cirque in 2006 in the Bloomberg Tower on the Upper East Side, just south of Bloomingdale’s. It is one of several restaurants — including Circo, on West 55th Street, and Sirio Ristorante, in the Pierre Hotel — that he operated with his wife, Egidiana (Palmieri) Maccioni, and three sons, Marco, Mauro and Mario. In addition to Mauro, they all survive him, as do two grandchildren and a sister, Clara Pieri.