Photo by George Mahe
Local ice cream lovers—and especially residents of Webster Groves—have been served a double scoop of surprising news to end the year.
Beckie Jacobs, owner of Serendipity Homemade Ice Cream (8130 Big Bend) in the Old Orchard area of Webster Groves, announced that the 18-year institution will be closing December 23 and not relocating in Webster—for the time being, anyway.
“Unfortunately, I've been unable to come to an agreement with my landlord,” she said in a release, “and I’ve been unsuccessful in finding a suitable, alternative location in Webster at this time.” (SLM reached out to the building owner for comment.)
Jacobs has “looked into expanding on and off over the years,” she told SLM in September, which resulted in securing a new location in The Grove. SLM learned that Jacobs had been looking to relocate within Webster Groves for the past year and that “the Serendipity family really wanted to keep the flagship there,” she says. “We still hope to do that.”
“This is so bittersweet for me,” the release said. “My customers have truly become family.”
Courtesy Serendipity
Serendipity's Dippity Dough for this month is Peppermint Bark M&M, peppermint ice cream between two chocolate M&M cookies topped with marshmallow sauce and sprinkles
Courtesy Serendipity
Serendipity owner Beckie Jacobs holding a Dipstix, a giant scoop of vanilla or chocolate ice cream covered in semi-sweet chocolate and rolled in roasted, salted almonds
Over the years, Serendipity became known for its variety of homemade ice cream flavors, requisite sundaes, shakes, malts, and floats, as well as more esoteric offerings such as bite-size bon bons, spirited (boozy) shakes, and ice cream novelties, from Waffle Nachos and Dipstix to Dipity Dough—a create-your-own ice cream sandwich cradled by a cookie, brownie, or, more recently, a glazed donut split in half.
Jacobs was an early supporter of National Ice Cream for Breakfast Day. Since its inception, “Serendipity Homemade Ice Cream has closed the entire month of January and reopened the first weekend of February for ‘Ice Cream for Breakfast Day,’” noted the release, which was the original plan with the new Grove location, until supply chain and construction issues delayed the buildout until spring 2022.
In the meantime, some of the restaurants that serve Serendipity ice cream have stepped up to become “pop-up partners,” Jacobs says. Serendipity will celebrate National Ice Cream for Breakfast Day on February 5 from 8–11 a.m. at the The Parkmoor Drive-In (220 W. Lockwood) in Webster Groves and The Sliced Pint (1511 Washington) in Downtown West. Both locations will be serving signature breakfast-themed flavors, such as Maple Bacon Crunch, Saturday Morning Cartoons, and French Toast Crunch. (Until the new location opens, production for wholesale accounts will take place at The Sliced Pint.)
To better fit the demographic of location in The Grove, look for increased hours and an expanded menu, including a "coffee-to-cocktails" program, in which coffee and light pastries will transition into affogatos, coffee floats (coffee over a bon bon), poffertjes (Dutch mini-pancakes with toppings), and Serendipity’s signature Spirited Shakes.
In the interim, additional pop-ups will be announced on Serendipity's website starting in February.
