London to Possibly Open Crowdfunded Cereal Cafe
Shoreditch could wake up to cereal cocktails, Pop-Tart combos and Saturday morning cartoons.
Running on some serious Weetbix numbers, cereal-loving Irish twins Alan and Gary Keery want to bring their childhood love of milk and grain to East London's Shoreditch. Stocking 100 cereals, 12 milks and 20 toppings, the puntastically-named Cereal Killer Cafe sounds like the breakfast bar of our dreams, with cereal cocktails, 18 Pop-Tart flavours, toast variations and local London tea and Saturday morning cartoons on tap.
Developing the idea after a huge night out, the Keerys craved that cereal fix of yesteryear but found London wanting for participating breakfast spots. Inspired by existing cereal cafes in the US like Cereality (where counter staff are called "cerealogists" and wear pyjamas as a uniform), the brothers saw a niche in the London market to indulge fellow cereal enthusiasts. "Cereal Killer Cafe will re-imagine how we enjoy our cereal... letting you, the customer, tailor a bowl to your exact taste," say the twins on their Indiegogo site. "And because of our extensive range of milks we will cater to vegans, vegetarians and even awkward children." Hooray! Even awkward children!
The Keerys have been working on the business plan for eight months, finding inspiration for the interior design in their favourite breakfast friends. "The whole look [is] based on a bowl of Lucky Charms," they said, further detailing their vision for milky cream walls and exposed brick interiors. "Cereal cafés already existed in America so we have put our own twist to it, presenting the cafe with a vintage style and having it decorated wall to wall with old cereal boxes and memorabilia." The Shoreditch cafe will feature old televisions playing cereal's longtime soulmate: cartoons (showing exclusively on Saturday mornings, as things should be).
Stocking every last boxed breakfast favourite from Lucky Charms to Special K, Cereal Killer will serve up small, medium and large bowls, as well as 'combo meals' paired with toast, Pop-Tarts, local tea and juice boxes. Adventurous breakfasters might be up for the cereal cocktails like 'Smore Than Words' (golden graham crackers, mini marshmallows and chocolate milk) and 'Crunchy Nutcase' (Crunchy Nut Cornflakes, Crunchy Nut Clusters, walnuts, pecans and hazlenut milk).
Having scrimped and saved their own small dosh hoard, the twins aren't entirely without funding. But London's cafe market runs on a sword's edge (particularly in Shoreditch) so the pair looked to Indiegogo for the final push. "We have already put together 20k of our own savings, but before approaching the banks we want to let our customers be part of the journey. Because we know there are other people out there as passionate about cereal as we are!"
Having only raised £785 of their £60,000, the Keerys are hopeful more early-risers and sugar-craving, Saturday morning cartoon-loving Big Kids will invest. But if Crunchy Nut's Londoncentric campaign (below) is indicative of positive market research results, the Keerys will surely find fellow cereal killers around town happy to throw them a pound or two.
Top image credits Gary and Alan Keery.
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