Well, it was just this week that I saw the $25,000 dessert on the news. Yes, according to the Guinness Book of Records, Serendipity III, the famous sweet shop on East 60th Street held the record for the world’s most expensive dessert. Their famous frozen hot chocolate’s more decadent version with edible gold flakes, didn’t sound all that appetizing, even if it did cost almost as much as I paid for my co-op 20 years ago, and more than a year’s salary in the same era.

But it all came to end, hopefully temporarily, when the health inspectors closed the famous dessert place, claiming that, at the time of inspection, there was a live mouse, and cockroaches. The sweet shop is the choice of celebrities and tops many tourists’ lists of must-see stops during a trip to New York. The cafe was also a star in a movie that bore its name; “Serendipity” starred John Cusack, the king of romantic comedies, and several scenes were shot in the cafe, and one scene featured the popular frozen hot chocolate, minus the gold flakes.

Indeed, a TV news reporter today, relating the story outside the restaurant, interviewed on camera several tourists who had come to sample the famous dessert. Tourists from as far away as Australia, were disappointed to show up today in eager anticipation of the famous dessert.

Let’s hope Serendipity III can clean up and re-open quickly. First, the stagehand strike puts a damper on tourists’ theater plans, and now this. Hopefully both situations will be resolved soon, and visitors to the Big Apple can see the shows of their choice, and have a Serendipity dessert by Thanksgiving.