After forty-two years, three homes, uncountable chefs, one Nazi-related Yelp scandal, and a dozen Times reviews (one of them arguably the most iconic work of restaurant criticism in history), the Upper East Side gastronomic institution Le Cirque has announced that it will be closing its doors after service on New Year’s Eve.

The Maccioni family, which has owned and operated the restaurant since its opening, in 1974, has made noises about looking for a new, smaller space somewhere near Madison Avenue, but the prospect seems remote, and licensed iterations in far-flung locales like Las Vegas and Bangalore are merely shadows of the original. This is, in all likelihood, the end of Le Cirque as we know it.