Serious Eats: New York
HBO Documentary on Le Cirque Debuts December 29
Restaurant closings don't seem like a big deal anymore, but on New Year's Eve in 2004, when iconic New York restaurant Le Cirque closed its doors, it very much was. The 78-minute documentary Le Cirque: A Table in Heaven follows the restaurant's father Sirio Maccioni, his wife, and three sons from the 2004 closing in the Palace hotel, to the grand re-opening in the Bloomberg building two years later.
"Sirio Maccioni pioneered a new style of dining in the 1980s, combining four-star food with the celebrity-charged ambience usually found in night clubs. Today, the Maccioni sons are trying to apply the same formula to a younger generation of celebrities with different tastes."
Of course, it wouldn't be a documentary without moments of conflict and poignant revelation. Plus, there are some big-name cameos: Tony Bennett, Mayor Bloomberg, Henry Kissinger, Bill Cosby, and Martha Stewart. Watch Monday, December 28 at 8 p.m.