Serendipity

After visiting the Houdini Museum, we headed over to Serendipity on 3rd Ave and E 60th St. This has been on our my bucket list ever since moving to New York, but I had forgotten it until just recently. This is the Serendipity from the movies Serendipity and One Fine Day. We had wanted to stop in here for a frozen hot chocolate on our anniversary, but since it was raining that night, we just decided to get dessert at the restaurant where we had dinner. 

Serendipity (formally known as Serendipity 3 for the three men who founded it) was created in 1954 by Stephen Bruce, Calvin Holt, and Patch Carradine. The three lived in Little Italy and opened the shop with only $300, which let them start out with four tables and 16 chairs. It was first located in a tenement building's basement on East 58th Street, but once it became popular they moved to the brownstone on East 60th Street where it remains today. You can read more about its history here. 

It's a small little storefront and extremely busy. When we gave our names to the guy at the front, he told us it would be an hour wait. We didn't have anything else to do and wanted to try the place out, so we decided to stick it out.

We went walking around the neighborhood for awhile and visited the nearby Dylan's Candy Bar (a candy store) to pass the time. We arrived back at Serendipity an hour later, and sat down on the benches outside to wait. We ended up waiting another 15-20 minutes, but the day was pleasant and we had fun people watching. 

Finally they led us inside to our table. The restaurant occupies two stories, and our table was on the bottom one. We had to wind our way through the small room packed with tables and chairs. The scene in One Fine Day was filmed on the lower floor, where we ate. The scene in the movie Serendipity was filmed on the second floor. We didn't get a chance to see the second floor.

There were a plethora of Tiffany lampshades hanging from the ceiling along with other random metal art pieces and stained glass window panes. The decorations were very eclectic and profuse, making the tiny restaurant seem even more so. It was fun, but almost too crowded with people and stuff and noise to want to stay for very long. Not really a plush, sit-down and have a nice relaxing meal sort of restaurant. It was more of a sit down, get your food, eat and leave place. But I'm glad we went.

The menus were cute, and the restaurant's history was printed on the front. We had really just wanted to get a frozen hot chocolate, but to get a table you have to order food. We wanted to go inside and get the whole experience so we did. They offer a variety of foods and desserts so there was a lot to choose from; however, the prices were a bit spendy. Brian got a hamburger and fries and I got a turkey sandwich with apples slices and brie on raisin pumpernickel bread. We shared our meals and it was all good.

The pièce de résistance of the experience was the frozen hot chocolate. We got one to share and boy was it scrumptious. They serve it in a large bowl-shaped goblet with a tower of whip cream and chocolate shavings. I felt a little like Veronica and Archie from the comics as we drank it together through our straws.

We paid and left, but stopped outside to get a picture of us in front of it. It was such a fun date.

 

We loved the frozen hot chocolate so much that we went home and found the recipe online. The Serendipity 3 kept the recipe a secret until the restaurant's 50th anniversary, which is when they released it to the public. If you want to try this delicious creation, but don't want to travel all the way to NYC to do it, check out this link. 

Oh, and Serendipity also created the Golden Opulence Sundae on it's 50th anniversary. This dessert costs $1,000.00 and the restaurant requires a notice 48 hours before you come to eat it. According to Wikipedia:

"Golden Opulence Sundae is made using three to five scoops of rich Tahitian vanilla bean ice cream infused with Madagascar vanilla and covered in 23k edible gold leaf. The chocolate syrup used is from melted Amedei Porcelana, one of the world's most expensive chocolates; and covered with chunks of rare Chuao chocolate, which is from cocoa beans harvested by the Caribbean Sea on Venezuela’s coast. The sundae is then adorned with 'exotic candied fruits from Paris, gold covered almonds/dragets, chocolate truffles and marzipan cherries.' Added to the dessert is a tiny glass bowl of Grand Passion Caviar, an exclusive dessert caviar, made of salt-free American Golden caviar, known for its sparkling golden color. It’s sweetened and infused with fresh passion fruit, orange and Armagnac. Edible gold leaf is made from pure gold that is compressed or rolled into very thin sheets that are only a few micrometers thick and contain no other metals or impurities. It is finally topped off with a gilded sugar flower and sprinkled with small flakes of more edible gold."

Source

 And in case you wanted to see how it is assembled, I found this short video.

I read somewhere that they sell about three of these a month. We didn't see anyone eating a golden sundae while we were there, which was slightly disappointing because we kind of wanted to see one.

This will likely be our only visit to Serendipity, but probably not our only frozen hot chocolate (thanks internet for the recipe).

I don't think we'll ever have the Golden Opulence Sundae.