Sirio Maccioni, a Manhattan restaurateur who made Le Cirque a headquarters for Manhattan’s rich and powerful in the 1980s and ’90s, and put dishes like pasta primavera and crème brûlée on the culinary map, died on Monday in the town where he was born, Montecatini, in Tuscany, Italy. He was 88.

His son Mauro confirmed the death through a family friend. Mr. Maccioni maintained a home in Montecatini as well as one in Manhattan.

Dash, charm and matinee-idol looks helped make Mr. Maccioni an unusual sort of celebrity from the moment in the early 1960s that he took over as the maitre d’hotel at the Colony, a darling of New York’s cafe society. “Our beloved Colony has a new maitre’d,” Henry Luce wrote in Time magazine. “He’s young, he’s elegant, he’s smart.”

Mr. Maccioni’s talent for cosseting high-strung, demanding clients like Stavros Niarchos, Frank Sinatra and the duke and duchess of Windsor elevated him to the status of trusted adviser, fixer and social gatekeeper.