New York City: Serendipity 3 (August 2018)



My spouse and I visited Serendipity 3 for dessert on a Thursday afternoon in late August 2018. Serendipity 3 (also called Serendipity III and Serendipity Three) is open daily from 11:30 am until 12:00 midnight (closing time is extended until 1:00 am on weekends). You can telephone to make a reservation for lunch or dinner, although most of the patrons are walk-ins; reservations are not accepted for dessert only.

As its website proclaims, “serendipity” refers to the “art of making happy discoveries, or finding the unexpectedly pleasant by chance”. The origin of word “serendipity” derives from the island of Serendip/Serendib (which is now Sri Lanka [Ceylon]) and three legendary princes who lived there.
Serendipity 3 is located in Midtown on East 60th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues), close to Dylan’s Candy Bar and the Manhattan station for the Roosevelt Island Aerial Tramway. The ice cream parlor/restaurant/general store first opened in 1954, and over the years, has boasted of an illustrious clientele including Marilyn Monroe, Jacqueline Kennedy, Cher, Melanie Griffith, Beyonce, and Ryan Reynolds. In addition, the restaurant has played a role in several movies, including the aptly named Serendipity (with John Cusak and Kate Beckinsdale), One Fine Day (with George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer), and Trust the Man (with David Duchovny and Julianne Moore), as well as in the TV show Gossip Girl. Another Serendipity venue is located in Boca Raton, Florida; however, all other locations of Serendipity (including Boston, Washington DC, and Las Vegas) are now closed.

Serendipity 3 occupies two stories of a mid-block townhouse. Guests step down a few steps from the sidewalk to reach the bottom floor, first passing by shop counters and shelves laden with logo gear, candy and other sweets to take home, and miscellaneous curios. The ground-floor dining area is cozy because of its low ceilings, with seating at tables beneath loads of hanging stained-glass lamps. Decor includes a giant (perhaps from Mobil gas) horse sign, weird dummy/mannequins, a rear wall papered with small round mirrors, and European-looking art on the walls. (The pictures contained scantily clad men and women with body parts covered with fig leafs or the like, similar to sculptures and art that you would see in a museum; we thought this subject matter was inappropriate for a restaurant that is so popular with children.) Patrons reach the second floor dining rooms by way of a narrow staircase (not handicap-friendly). The two interconnected upper dining rooms have high ceilings, front and rear windows, antique moldings, and pastel colors, without much of the shabby-chic clutter of the lower dining area; for us, the upper dining room is preferable. (Regrettably, we were seated downstairs.)

Serendipity’s claim to fame is its Frrrozen Hot Chocolate (over 25 million served!), a cold but not quite frozen chocolaty brew that tasted like a Yoo-Hoo and/or a Wendy’s Frosty (except the version at Serendipity has a double-digit price tag of $12.95, however, it is large enough for 2 people to share). It is served in a ice cream dish/goblet atop a plate to catch the “dregs” (overflow), stuck with some long straws for sipping and a plastic logo spoon for scooping (the drink is more liquid than solid, though, so the spoon is mainly for effect). For us, the best part was the mound of whipped cream topping accented with chocolate shavings. Although we had stopped in to share the hot chocolate, the restaurant imposes a minimum per person charge (about $8.50), so we also had to order a pricey $11.95 slice of apple pie. (Truthfully, the crust was delicious, and it was served warm topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream; we much preferred the pie to the hot chocolate.) But we got off easy considering we could have ordered their "Golden Opulence Sundae", which the Guinness Book of World Records declared the world's most expensive dessert at $1,000. (It is made with precious ingredients, must be ordered 48 hours in advance, and is served in a take-home Baccarat crystal bowl.) Or even the value-priced $295 “Le Burger Extravagant”, the world’s most expensive hamburger, the "Quintessential Grilled Cheese Sandwich" for $214, or the "Foot Long Haute Dog" for $69. (Serendipity also offer normally priced menu items ranging from $15 to $20, and the food we saw looked tasty and plentiful.)

Visiting Serendipity 3 is something worth doing once.















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