What makes a restaurant legendary in a city that has seen its fair share of great restaurants come and go through the revolving door? Let me offer a suggestion. Perhaps the formula for success should be a restaurant with a combination between Italian cuisine alongside the french classics? If that is the case, than Le Cirque, celebrated for its fine dining and frequent celebrity spotting, has managed to achieve this coveted feat since 1974.

So this evening, when I head out to the book launch of A Table at Le Cirque, I know that it will be a charming occasion to mingle with my friends, and perhaps chat with the seductive Sirio Maccioni, who most famously, created a buzzing social club for titans and tastemakers from all walks of life, from every U.S. president since Nixon, kings and Hollywood royalty; café society and business magnates.

As I’m writing this post, I’m also glancing over the pages of A Table at Le Cirque… It is the first book to chronicle the fascinating stories, fabled history, the glitz and glamour, and the iconic recipes from the restaurant that is synonymous with luxury. The first half of the book recounts Maccioni’s journey from Montecatini to Manhattan and Le Cirque’s rise to glory. There are hundreds of photographs and drawings, and they all represent a visual history of the world inside the tent (some of them captured by The New York Times society photographer Bill Cunningham who posted himself, in rain or shine, in front of the entrance to capture the comings and goings. I see fashion titans Oscar de La Renta and Carolina Herrera; moguls Donald Trump and Swifty Lazar; socialites Blaine Trump and Nan Kempner; media mavens Barbara Walters and Liz Smith; music legends Mick Jagger, Frank Sinatra, and Diana Ross; celebrities Woody Allen and Sophia Loren, to name a few. I also get to go inside the kitchens of each tenured chef from Jean Vergnes to Olivier Reginensi, each of whom brought something amazing to the table, as well as witness the reinvention of Le Cirque at the three Manhattan locations the restaurant has occupied in its storied history.