Partner Calvin Holt
Queer Places:
Serendipity 3, 225 E 60th St, New York, NY 10022
Stephen
Bruce (born January, 1932) was an American designer. Serendipity III, a
dessert boutique, opened in 1954. It was started by three partners: Stephen
Bruce, Patch Carradine and
Calvin Holt. The three encouraged
Andy Warhol to hang his drawings on
the walls. The astute vision the three men shared would soon be recognized by
crowds lining the block for their frozen hot chocolate, and the chance to
catch a glimpse of a celebrity amid the Tiffany-shaped décor. Today, after 50
years, the crowds keep coming. Its quirky specialties range from zen hash to
frozen hot chocolate, and its whimsical merchandise is framed by original
Tiffany lamps and other antiques. Favorite fare among the cafe's
celebrity-sprinkled habitues are three-egg omelets filled with cavier and sour
cream, Aunt Buba's sand tarts and lemon ice-box pie. Their formulas were
revealed in "The Serendipity Cookbook," written by Holt and Bruce with Pat
Miller and published in 1990 by Wynwood Press.
The original concept was an antiques shop with a cafe in back. Bruce, who
moved to the city from upstate New York after high school, began his fashion career as a window dresser for Macy's, and designed clothes for the shop's boutique along with Leila Larmon; Holt, a dancer, and Caradine were from Arkansas, and
brought to the table their Southern charm and their mothers' pie recipes.
After finding the small basement space on Second Avenue, the trio went upstate
to Hudson, N.Y., to source antiques. The only thing available to us were
Tiffany glass shades, Bruce says. They were out of fashion and no one wanted
them. We saved them from the children of the antiques dealers, who were
putting them in the trees and throwing rocks at them. Those art nouveau
shades, with their colored-glass floral mosaics, became a calling card for the
restaurant, and the white cafe tables are still washed with their
kaleidoscopic light. Next came a visit to Little Italy, where they bought a
discounted espresso machine, something of a novelty at the time. They opened
with cake and pie and cappuccinos; an espresso drink was 30 cents, and
desserts, chocolate pecan pie, rum cake and sand tart cookies, went for 75.
The menu expanded when they realized that they couldn't survive, financially,
on cake, cappuccinos and hospitality alone.
Andy Warhol and Stephen Bruce at Serendipity 3, circa 1962.Credit...John Ardoin
Dress
Design House Serendipity 3 American
Designer Stephen Bruce American
Designer Leila Larmon American
1966. The whimsical style of both the Serendipity label and the shop itself is evident in this caftan depicting the "Hey Diddle Diddle" nursery rhyme. Credit Line: Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Stephen Bruce, 1983
Boots
Designer Leila Larmon American
Designer Stephen Bruce American
Manufacturer Golo Footwear Corporation American
1973. Denim, once limited to working-class wardrobes, became ubiquitous in the 1960s and '70s. Here the fabric of the boots has been printed with the words "denim" and "jeans" in a Pop Art–style font. The boots, with a moderate platform sole, zip at the center front with a closure that clearly references the fastening on an actual pair of blue jeans. These boots were donated to The Costume Institute from the collection of the denim retail outfitter Serendipity, well known in the 1960s and '70s for lavishly ornamented and painted denim garments.
Credit Line: Gift of Serendipity 3 Denim Clothing Collection, 1977
Serendipity III
In Serendipity's 65 years of business, it has become something of a New York
landmark. It's a place famous for celebrity sightings and a place unashamed to
publicize those sightings. It inspired a 2001 movie of the same name, starring
John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale, who play characters who bond over a glass of
frozen hot chocolate. The restaurant's cookbook includes an introduction
written in exactly 100 words by Cher. Service is hyper-attentive and
accommodating; as Pamela Tobias, a 48-year-old integrative health coach, says,
They were probably the original place of special requests. Tobias has been
going to Serendipity since the '70s. Now she goes with her girlfriends, and
each has their own personal hot chocolate order. We're always there hanging
out, chatting, eating our desserts, sometimes late at night, she says. Never
with a guy, though! The allure of such a place comes partially from the food,
of course. As Jonn Jorgenson, who has been a Serendipity waiter since 1993,
explains, Comfort food and a little bit of decadence is never going to go out
of style. But it's also about the way the restaurant has leaned into its
self-mythologizing, building a little world that lures newcomers with sugary
treats and boasts about all the people who have been coming here for decades.
Jorgenson relishes telling the story of Marilyn Monroe busting out of her
dress at a news conference with the Actors Studio in the dining room and
hiding in the women's bathroom until Bruce could come sew her back in. Any
time a woman goes, Oh my god, that bathroom is teeny tiny! I say, Yeah, it was
tiny enough for Marilyn to be sewn back into a dress she had come out of!
This a celebrity haunt with a total lack of exclusivity, and a Lewis
Carroll-like fun house dedicated to G-rated pleasures. When I try to explain
it to people who haven't been there, I'm like, Well, really, it's a
principality, says Jorgenson. It was started by three men who refer to
themselves as the princes of Serendipity. In a New York that is being
gradually stripped of its whimsy, participating in the tradition that is
Serendipity is a luxe little comfort. Yes, it's kitschy, but this is kitsch
with soul, kitsch whose great desire is for you to enjoy it. There's a little
doll of Andy Warhol, which he made, hanging from the ceiling. There's a disco
ball a few feet away from it. The menu looks like the playbill for a
Vaudeville show. It's the sort New York place you want, immediately and
desperately, to protect, even on your first visit.
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