This week in the Times, Bruni three-stars Le Cirque, bumping the restaurant's rating up from the two stars he awarded it in 2006. Executive chef Christophe Bellanca’s menu “nimbly straddles the line between predictable decadence… and creative flair,” he says. He also says that you’ll pay—a lot—for what you get, and that Le Cirque isn’t quite as reliable as other three star restaurants. In $25 and Under, ">Peter Meehan is at Soba Totto, where he......

Fans of the neo-Gilded Age New York fantasy show Gossip Girl are so going to love this news: the fictional grilled fontina cheese sandwich with truffle oil ordered by Serena van der Woodsen in the show’s pilot is now a real sandwich! Zagat’s website reports that the item is now permanently part of the bar menu at Gilt – the very location where cameras filmed actress Blake Lively being served the sandwich. Once just a......

The most expensive dessert in the world (pictured) used to be the $14,500 “Fortress Aquamarine” served at a luxury resort in Sri Lanka. But today Sri Lankans can choke on their gilded shame, for the Upper East Side’s Serendipity 3 has put America back on top with a $25,000 triumph called the Frrrozen [sic] Haute Chocolate. Break out your giant diamond-encrusted foam fingers, because the Guinness Book of World Records will now list this as......

The massive $7,000 truffle acquired by Le Cirque owner Sirio Maccioni sits vulnerably under glass just steps from the restaurant’s doors. But Mauro Maccioni, who helps run the place with his brother Marco, says he’s not worried about any truffle-burglars scrambling off with the famous fungus. “They’d never make it. But that reminds me – my father was one of the first people to bring truffles to New York; he tells a story about......

Clutched like a shot put by a chef in Le Cirque's kitchen, here’s a photo we took of that $7000 truffle that has been making the news this week- it even landed in the Daily News' gossip pages. In true Page 6 style, we became ad hoc truffle paparazzi Tuesday night in an effort to score a candid of the truffle at the restaurant. Armed with our crummy digital camera and generally warded off by......

Le Cirque owner Sirio Maccioni made big news recently by dropping $7,000 on a single white truffle, telling the Post, “Once in a while, you have to be crazy.” Indeed, the highly coveted tubers – which at Le Cirque are often shaved sparingly onto pastas or used for tortellini filling – are known to drive chefs and gourmands mad with ecstasy. (Melissa Hom, who took the above photo for Grub Street, snapped a hilarious......

One of the city's biggest industries is the tourism, and the city announced a major push to keep the tourists coming in. Mayor Bloomberg and other officials kicked off the " first-ever global multimedia communications campaign to promote New York City." An advertising campaign titled "This is New York City" will features outdoor posters, internet advertising and a TV spot. Plus, the NYCVisit website features ways for visitors to plan their trip. Bloomberg said, "Everyone......

- Beloved dive bar Siberia (wall signage pictured at right) to close? - Get a look at a roundup of "casual dining" burgers on Serious Eats, from Houlihan's, Applebee's, T.G.I.Friday's, and Red Robin, just in case you find yourself trapped somewhere in the middle of the country. - Jennifer Leuzzi of Snack dives into the rumor mill around Le Cirque. True: Christophe Bellanca, formerly of L.A.'s, L'Orangerie, will be joining the kitchen as of the......

Every child (and Homer Simpson) dreams of a land where everything is chocolate as far as the eye can see. Spending a day at the 9th Annual Chocolate Show is damn close to that land of chocolatey goodness. As soon as we walked through the door, we were hit with the scent of chocolate wafting through the air. Breathing it in, we worked our way through the crowds to sample the wares of some......

A girl was shot after a community center Halloween party on Saturday - and there may be a link to the Chicken Noodle rappers From Upper East Side mansion to 7 World Trade Center: The Academy of the Sciences have moves downtown Fun fact: 73% of the city's registered domestic partnerships are for straight couples Alan Hevesi is persona-non-grata the Democrats' Election Day party... politics is so like high school! Buy your own CBGB's......

After last month's breastfeeding confrontation at Toys R Us (which was followed by a Times Squre nurse in), the Daily News decided to send a reporter undercover. Well, sort of. Tracy Connor, who we really liked while watching Bravo's Tabloid Wars, and her three month old daughter Charlie went on a breastfeeding odyssey in "humble and posh locations" all around town to see "who is hip to NIP" (that's Nurse In Public). Connor and baby......

">Bruni two-stars Little Owl, says “It has an irresistible earnestness and exuberance that explain its instant, well-deserved popularity.” Also, he really likes the pork chop. Chef Joey Campanero, formerly executive chef at The Harrison and Pace, gets kudos for “disciplined cooking,” as does manager and co-owner Gabriel Stulman, for “real hospitality.” Gothamist visited Little Owl for brunch and on opening night and was favorably impressed both times. Eater double-dared Frank to two-star Little Owl......

Bruni two-stars Le Cirque, experiences it’s "famously split personality, half dismissive and half pampering, depending on who you are,” first brought to light by Ruth Reichl at the start of her reign as Times critic. Finds the restaurant itself full of old people, not so exciting. And Eater calls the BruniBetting right this week. Steve Cuozzo explores the ridiculous food markups rampant throughout the city -- up to 557% of the cost of the ingredients......

Adam Platt takes a first stab at the new Le Cirque, awarding it two out of five stars in New York Magazine this week. He's certainly not wowed, but not thoroughly disappointed either. Some excerpts to whet your whistle: - On the space: "a great, polished, cruise ship of a restaurant" - On the crowd: "assorted aging contessas and paleo-billionaires dressed resplendently in their charcoal suits and pastel (occasionally pink) summer ties" - On......

Jean Godfrey-June has carved out a name for herself as not just a beauty expert, but someone readers turn to for a highly individual, irreverent approach to deciphering the ever-expanding maze of products available to color, highlight, firm, and enhance. The long-time Elle columnist turned Lucky Beauty Editor dishes about her unlikely path toward a desk full of products in her new memoir Free Gift with Purchase : My Improbable Career in Magazines and Makeup,......

Bruni two-stars Degustation. The restaurant is the latest incarnation of Jewel Bako Robato, which had previously morphed into Grace's Kalbi Bar, and is a part of the Grace & Jack Lamb East Village empire. Creativity "courses through the concise lineup of dishes," says Bruni. Gasp, the Eater oddsmakers are off the mark! They predicted one star for Degustation, a rare slipup. Perhaps they were just doing it to mix things up: they admit "we may......

Just over a year old, but with a window full of gastronomic accolades, former Le Cirque pastry chef Iacopo Falai's eponymously named Clinton Street joint radiates with new flavor and experimentation of Florentine style brought to the Lower East Side. With white tile, white tables, white chairs, white candles, and a white-bricked garden, Falai relies upon the reflections of dining patrons in the mirrors and the color of food on plates to bring color......

This summer has been one docu after another in the art house theaters. If you've seen enough talking heads, soft money and political intrigue to last you until the next election cycle, might we recommend a documentary on a topic near and dear to the Gothamist heart: New York restaurants. The documentary Eat This New York (2003), detailing the opening of a Brooklyn eatery by Billy Phelps and John McCormick over the course of year,......

Say the word "chocolate" and Gothamist swoons with thoughts of deep, dark rich pleasure. Mention the name Jacques Torres and we're lost in memories of his decadent, gourmet chocolates, hand-crafted in his DUMBO factory and retail shop, Jacques Torres Chocolates. From Torres' dark chocolate-encased Earl Grey Tea ganache to his Wicked Hot Chocolate, spiked with chili heat and subtle spices, his sweet conconctions have won fans - including intrepid foodies that bike or hike......

When Gothamist read about how famed NY restaurant New York Region > Le Cirque Considering Moving on at Year's End" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/13/nyregion/13sirio.html?ex=1402459200&en=acdb02dd1f52aca7&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND">Le Cirque 2000 may have to leave its space at the Palace Hotel, we were surprised that nowhere in the article was there mention of how the restaurant really hit its peak with executive chef Sottha Kuhn and pastry chef Jacques Torres. As Gothamist could only eat our hearts out when we read about Le......

Page Six has this great bit about Le Cirque owner Sirio Maccioni slamming former Times restaurant critic William Grimes. Most likely spurred by a poor review of his sons' restaurant (rack of lamb as having "all the appeal of a gnarled tree stump" and the osso buco as "a slick, glutinous mass, with surprisingly untender meat concealed within"), Maccioni told WWD, "When a reviewer has an ugly wife, he can never be very good." Even......