Serendipity 3 to Open (Sometime) Next Week

Serendipity 3 is set to open its Georgetown doors next week, date and time unknown. The dessert restaurant will expand its menu in D.C. to offer not only its famous frozen hot chocolate, but also locally-themed president's lobster pasta and  jumbo lump crab cakes.

The new restaurant at 3150 M Street fills the former Nathan's Restaurant slot, which plays a prominent role in

As Georgetown Metropolitan details here the ice cream parlour has been a long time in the making:

The first reports said they could be open as late as late spring 2010. Then it was maybe that summer. Then the fall. And so on.

Today Moki Media, the PR firm representing Seredipity 3, sent a release boasting that the D.C. location would open "before Memorial Day." Dannia Hakki, the co-founder and principal at MoKi Media, responded to an email asking about an exact date, saying, "We do not have a specific date."

Whenever it does open the new shop will have a few quirky features, including:

- a tall fiberglass statue of a smirking Abraham Lincoln, designed by high-profile D.C. artist and prop designer A.J. Strasser

-an historical clock from landmark D.C. jeweler Galt & Bros,

-and a 1960s photograph of Andy Warhol and Serendipity 3 co-founder Stephen Bruce.

Check back with Georgetown Patch for a confirmed opening date soon.