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Is Le Cirque Closing?

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Owners are trying to save the restaurant from shuttering at the end of 2017

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A dining room with maroon carpeting and tables with white tablecloths Le Cirque

It looks like one of the city's most legendary restaurants, Le Cirque may close, with New Year’s Eve the final night of service after a more than 40-year run.

At least that’s what staffers have been telling regular customers. In response, some residents at the neighboring Bloomberg building have been trying to raise money to stave off the closing.

“A group of us were going to put together a fund to float them, and to raise a couple of million from this group is no big deal,” one resident and Le Cirque regular tells Eater NY. “We will miss having a landmark like that right in our courtyard, but the sons seemed more focused on other projects and franchising than on this restaurant.”

Co-owner Marco Maccioni maintains that his family is still trying to save it.

“It’s the big daddy. We have two years left on the lease and we are still in negotiation with the landlord to make sure everything comes out in the best way,’’ he tells Eater NY. “My dad is in Italy but will be coming back in two weeks and he will sit down with the landlord as well. He always feels that the show must go on.’’

The restaurant made news this week after it hosted a GOP fundraising dinner with Donald Trump for which seats cost a minimum of $35,000 per person. The dinner raised $5 million for the Republican party.

Following the event, Yelpers blasted the restaurant, imploring people to avoid it — a move that prompted the owner Sirio Maccioni to call them “social media Nazi white supremacists.”

Maccioni added that the “diverse and hard-working staff” that “lives paycheck to paycheck” serves “great food with passion to everyone, regardless of who they are.”

Yelp has since banned comments on the Le Cirque page, stating: “This business is being monitored by Yelp's Support team for content related to media reports,” and redirects comments to Yelp Talk.

Open since 1974 when it debuted in the Mayfair Hotel, Le Cirque has resided in the Bloomberg building since May 2006.

Le Cirque has seen its share of trouble in the past few years, with management accused of sexual harassment by former employees and, before that, wage violations.

In 2012, Times critic Pete Wells gave it a one-star. “If you asked these ingredients to speak for themselves,” he wrote, “they would shrug and stare at the floor.”

Looking ahead, the restaurant says it has plans to open restaurants in the Dubai Ritz-Carlton, as well as Doha, Dallas, and Orlando.

Stay tuned for updates on the potential closing.

Le Cirque

151 East 58th Street, New York, NY 10022 Visit Website