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" Published in the November 2013 issue It seems enough simply to say that no restaurant in America, perhaps the world, has graduated so many renowned chefs as Le Cirque. Since it opened in 1974, Daniel Boulud, David Bouley, Terrance Brennan, Rick Moonen, Jacques Torres, Michael Lomonaco, Alex Stratta, Geoffrey Zakarian, and many, many more have passed through its kitchen.  But Le Cirque is an odyssey that began with a tall, skinny boy from Montecatini, Italy. After German soldiers ransacked his parents&amp;#039; house and his father was killed by a bomb, young Sirio Maccioni eventually made his way to America and became ma\u00EEtre d&amp;#039; of the Colony Club, the most famous society restaurant in New York in the 1960s. When Maccioni eventually opened his own place, his suave manner as host and manic attention to detail propelled Le Cirque into the epicenter of grand dining. It became a restaurant that attracted Sophia Loren and Woody Allen as easily as it did nouvelle cuisiniers Paul Bocuse and Roger Verg\u00E9. His sons, Mario, Marco, and Mauro, hung around the kitchen with their mother, Egidiana, whose role as den mother intensified when the Maccionis opened Osteria del Circo, a Tuscan-style trattoria on Manhattan&amp;#039;s West Side. By the time the boys were grown, they were overseeing operations in the New York restaurants, a new Le Cirque in Las Vegas, and other venues, which now reach to the Dominican Republic and New Delhi. This year, the family opened Sirio Ristorante in New York&amp;#039;s Pierre Hotel.  The Maccioni restaurants are exemplars of the evolution of both design and cuisine at the fine-dining level, pioneering innovations like pasta primavera alongside classics of haute cuisine and cuisine bourgeoise \u2014 sole amandine, osso buco. Today, Sirio sits like a pope, greeting old and new friends, while his sons balance restrained civility and refreshing nonchalance. Without this family, the world of fine dining would be different today \u2014 archaic, safe, bereft of charm. After all these years, the sight of at least one of the Maccionis working the dining room is a comfort too many restaurants have forsaken. By the way, the name Le Cirque? When the Germans retreated from Montecatini and the Allies moved in, young Sirio watched them. &amp;quot;The Americans,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;They looked like the circus coming to town!&amp;quot; Follow Eat Like a Man on RSS and on Twitter at @ESQFood. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/food-drink/restaurants/a25261/maccioni-family-1113/>