Serendipity Homemade Ice Cream

A neighborhood ice cream parlor in The Grove

Scoops come first here and everything else is built around them. Serendipity Homemade Ice Cream has been making and serving its own ice cream in St Louis since 2003, and The Grove branch opened in July 2022, timed to National Ice Cream Day. The focus stays on premium ice cream and sorbet, extended by coffee, drinks, catering and wholesale rather than a restaurant menu.

The setting is friendly and casual. It presents itself as a locally owned neighborhood shop where guests see familiar faces and can talk to the owner, which gives it a parlor feel rather than a chain concept. The Grove branch occupies the ground floor of the Gateway Lofts development, so it sits inside a mixed-use block rather than standing alone as a dessert stand. At opening it ran to about 2,000 square feet, with almost half of that given over to seating, which makes it more than a grab-and-go stop: families, friends and dessert groups have room to linger over scoops, sundaes, floats or coffee.

Counter service for scoops, shakes and sweets

Service centres on counter ordering. The core menu is built around ice creams and sorbets made with cream from pasture-raised cows and ingredients free from antibiotics and rBST, and the ice cream is certified kosher. Menu sections run to Current Flavors, Toppings, Syrups, Sundaes, Delectable Delights, Banana Split, Dipity Dough, Dipstix and Bon Bons, which is a frozen-dessert programme well beyond plain scoops.

Fresh made ice cream sandwiches are a named draw, along with shakes, malts, floats and spirited shakes made with the house ice cream. The drinks list widens the routine with dirty sodas, extra dirty sodas, a beer float, Irish coffee and a hot toddy. Catering is a substantial second channel, since Serendipity also supplies restaurants, clubs, hotels and events with ice cream service.

Order the ice cream sandwich, then decide on the drink

For a direct first order, take a fresh made ice cream sandwich, or a sundae, banana split, Dipstix, Dipity Dough or Bon Bons. If the visit is cup-led rather than spoon-led, choose a shake, malt, float, dirty soda, extra dirty soda or spirited shake. Those are the clearest expressions of the shop: homemade ice cream and sorbet in family-friendly dessert forms.

The coffee programme is secondary to the ice cream but genuinely there. Serendipity pours Kaldi’s and lists espresso and americano, cold brew, iced coffee, brewed Kaldi’s, mocha and latte, vanilla and hazelnut lattes, hot chocolate, hot tea, matcha latte and masala chai latte. The espresso machine opens a café lane beside the freezer, so a scoop, sandwich or sundae can arrive with brewed coffee, cold brew, matcha or chai instead of a fountain drink.