First Look: Serendipity Brings Sweet Treats to the Grove

Nearly two decades ago, Beckie Jacobs set up shop in Webster Groves, determined to build one of the area's premier ice cream brands, Serendipity Homemade Ice Cream (4400 Manchester Avenue, 314-833-3800). Now, she's bringing her brand to a new home in the Grove, determined to build on her success and make her stretch of Manchester Avenue a little bit sweeter.

"Webster Groves was really good to me for 19 years, but the city has also been very welcoming," Jacobs says. "It's been great to see such a diversity of new customers and all of the requests we are getting for new and interesting flavors."

Jacobs opened the new Serendipity location on July 17th, seven months after she shuttered her Webster Groves storefront. As she explained to the Riverfront Times in an interview last December, the decision was not her own; after failing to come to a lease agreement with her former landlord, her lease was terminated, and she was unable to find and alternate space nearby. She had originally wanted to stay in Webster Groves, but her new landlords in the Grove, real estate developers Amy and Amrit Gill, made her an offer she couldn't refuse.


"Amy and Amrit came to me and asked me to come to the Grove," Jacobs says. "They made it so easy for me to do it, and I am super appreciative. They went above and beyond the extra mile to make this happen for me."

The new Serendipity occupies the ground-floor storefront of the Gill's new mixed-use Gateway Lofts development at the corner of Manchester and Newstead Avenues. For Jacobs, this built-in customer base has given her the opportunity to think through some additional offerings, such as breakfast items and a robust coffee program.

"We're hoping to be an amenity to the people in this building and the other nearby one," Jacobs says. "Nobody was doing coffee service in the lobbies, so we said we would offer it. The closest coffeeshop was Rise, and now it's gone. Sweetwaters [Coffee & Tea] is all the way at the other end of Manchester; we're not trying to take business from them, but there are a lot of people nearby who just want some good coffee and approachable breakfast pastries, which we will make in house."


While the new coffee and breakfast offerings are not yet up and running, Jacobs and her team and focusing on what people have come to love and expect from Serendipity: outrageously good ice cream. The new shop still offers Serendipity's signature premium ice cream in a variety of flavors, like Salty Caramel Swirl, rum raisin, mint chip and butter pecan, as well as its Delectable Delights, such as Waffle Nachos, which pair waffle cone pieces with ice cream, chocolate and caramel sauces strawberries and almonds. Ice cream sandwiches, bon bons, shakes, floats and poffertjes, or tiny Dutch pancakes, are also available.

In addition to the forthcoming coffee and breakfast offerings, Jacobs plans on adding boozy concoctions to the menu. She's also excited to bring real-deal bagels to the neighborhood and is currently sourcing them from the Bagel Factory. These additions, together with a much larger production space that allows Serendipity to provide wholesale ice cream to area restaurants, have filled Jacobs with a sense of excitement at all of the new opportunities afforded to her by the move.

"I've had a lot of people come through who've told me that they've lived in the neighborhood for a long time and are so glad we are here," Jacobs says. It's really exciting."

Serendipity is open Tuesday through Sunday from 2-9 p.m. Scroll down for more photos of the new location.













We are always hungry for tips and feedback. Email the author at [email protected].

• Sign up for our weekly newsletters to get the latest on the news, things to do and places to eat delivered right to your inbox.
• Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, Google News.