[Photographs: Maggie Hoffman]

If Le Cirque has always felt a little too frou-frou-fancy, but you still want an excuse to experience it, "The Feast: L.E.S. Cirque" pop-up kicked off last night and will spend the next three nights hosting dinners inside the Hotel on Rivington. Le Cirque's executive chef Craig Hopson is heading downtown and wants the menu to be a little more "downtown," too. What exactly does that mean?

Cocktail pairings with three-course meals, where one ingredient is spotlighted each night. (It also means more Katy Perry playing in the rooftop penthouse-turned-event-space, with some Traveling Wilburys thrown into the mix at the end.) Last night, the ingredient du jour was lobster—tonight is watermelon, tomorrow is heirloom tomatoes, and the final night, Thursday, will feature sweet corn, both in the dishes and the corresponding drinks. (Note: they didn't make any cocktails with lobster stock last night, which was probably for the best.)

We headed up to the hotel's twentieth floor last night to scope out the incredible views of the city and eat more lobster than we normally do on a Monday night (on these pretty adorable Le Cirque monkey plates.)

Check out photos from the meal here.

There are still tickets available for the three remaining dinners; you can order them for $95 each here.

Hotel on Rivington

107 Rivington Street, New York NY 10002 (map)
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