New martini bar Serendipity sets upscale standard

The martini bar located on College Avenue and Fourth Street is anything but a mistake, as its name suggests, though it started out that way.

“This place took me about two years to fix up. I almost didn’t buy it. It was a nice accident, but I took my time. I wanted to do it right,” owner Tariq Khan said, “There was a lot of pressure.”

The building, which used to house Second Story and Bullwinkle’s Nightclub, had a change of pace about two years ago. It is now home to Serendipity, an upscale martini bar that houses live bands, usually associated with the University. Bands perform every weekend without cover charge.

“I don’t like the idea of paying up front to see a live show. I think people should come and enjoy and if they like it, should stay and even come back. A lot of bands are student bands too, or professors. There’s a big spectrum of music,” Khan said.

Hostess and senior Samantha Grimes has been working at the bar for two months. She has noticed that the majority of the students who visit the bar are students who are looking for a little reminder of home.

“It’s a nice and fancy place, not a stereotypical bar. This isn’t a place to blackout. There is a decent amount of students who show up, mainly out-of-state students like those from Chicago and New York who are used to places like this back home,” Grimes said.

Server Adam Tinsley grew up in Elletsville. He saw an ad in the paper that Serendipity was hiring and applied for the job. He was one of the first hired employees and helped bring in new people.

“I used to come here when it was Second Story and Bullwinkle’s. It’s so much nicer than it was then. It’s classier. It’s fun to work here, fun to get dressed up,” he said.

Khan’s fiancé, Tammy Schoch, was head of decorations. Schoch is a nurse at Monroe Hospital in Bloomington.

“There is definitely pressure to dress nicely when you come here,” Khan said. “The decorations are very fancy. The whole idea is to dress nicely, and I have found that the students who come here have very sophisticated tastes and palates.”

Though Serendipity is primarily a martini bar with 80 percent of sales being martinis, there is also a large selection of beer, wine and appetizers to choose from.

“The appetizers are meant to be large enough for people to share. We have everything from seafood to sautéed vegetables,” Khan said. “We’ve only been open about a month, and we’ve gone from 10 different kinds of martinis to about 25.”

Martinis range from the ever popular “City of God Martini” to the classic “Dirty Martini” to dessert martinis such as the “Chocolate Godiva Martini” and “Cookies and Crème Martini.” Each martini is priced between $9 and $12, with the “Chocolate Godiva Martini” as the most expensive at $12.