On East 60th Street, on Manhattan's Upper East Side, the Serendipity 3 restaurant has been greeting its hungry guests since 1954. The place quickly made a name for itself, known for its frozen hot chocolate and celebrity regulars like Andy Warhol, Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy.
By the time Serendipity 3 opened, Warhol's career as an artist was slowly gaining traction. Andy Warhol came to New York in 1949 after studying art and design in his hometown of Pittsburgh. First he worked in a shoe factory before he got a foot in the door of the advertising industry as a graphic designer. With his talent, he quickly worked his way up, getting recognized for his shoe illustrations for Glamour magazine.
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As early as 1952 he had his first solo exhibition at the Hugo Gallery, featuring his sketches Fifteen Drawings Based on the Writings of Truman Capote, and in 1956 he participated in a group exhibition of graphics at MoMA.
While he was still making his way as a commercial artist, Andy Warhol discovered Serendipity 3, a restaurant that sometimes accepted a drawing instead of money for a meal. Even as he became increasingly successful, Warhol remained loyal to the restaurant and kept coming back to it until his death in 1987.
Andy Warhol would have celebrated his 93rd birthday on August 6th. Serendipity 3 celebrated the special day with his favorite menu, featuring a hot dog with sauerkraut, French fries and a glass of the famous frozen hot chocolate.
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