Surreal! Serial Cereal Ingesters Run Amok!

[therese]

This Cereality joint seems to have just boxes of retail cereal and a few things to toss on top... wouldn't take much time or money to get the same effect at home.

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And you'd be missing the best part about breakfast at home: you don't have to get dressed and leave the house to enjoy it.

[dknywbg]

OK I did stop by this weekend, and I'm still not quite sure what to make of it.

We got there around 3:00 yesterday afternoon (Sunday), and the place was indeed jumping. Not overflowing, out-the-door lines, but there were half a dozen people eating already, and another half a dozen checking things out and placing orders. In the twenty minutes my husband and I spent there, I'd say they had about 25 people wander in. Several left without ordering, but the majority did seem to be there to buy.

The atmosphere was cute, fun, lively--and a little prepackaged-feeling. It's all pretty slick, as if it's part of a franchise already. And as my husband pointed out, the college vibe was definitely there--the living room area, where we sat, was so messy it felt a bit like a dormitory common room before the cleaning crew arrives.

As for the food, it was...cereal. I'm not sure what exactly I was expecting, but somehow I thought it would take on magical qualities by nature of being served by "cereologists." My husband ordered one of their suggested mixes, the PB&B Crunch: Cap'n Crunch, Reese's Puffs, raisins, banana slices, and chocolate syrup, for $3.50 (I think). He was a little disappointed when they handed it to him--it hadn't been mixed at all, just poured in one ingredient on top of the next. He didn't mix it himself before pouring in the milk, and the result was spoonfuls of raisins, of bananas, of cereal, but very little that gelled or felt like a "specialty." My husband's biggest complaint, though, was about the packaging: while the modified chinese take-out box is very clever and leakproof, it's impossible to drink the remaining milk by tipping it back and pouring it into your mouth--it would spill all down your front. They do have straws, but half the fun of leftover milk is drinking it straight from the bowl, no?

I had an oatmeal brownie, one of their prepared goodies (others being a s'mores bar, several kinds of granola, and yogurt-cereal parfaits). It was a layer of brownie with a layer of chewy oatmeal dough on top. Delicious, fudgy and not too heavy, but it wasn't good enough to make me want to go back time and again. The oatmeal didn't seem to be adding much to the experience, other than qualifying it to be sold in a cereal-only establishment.

While I was taking pictures the manager (I think) came over and we started talking. He said business is huge, with all the publicity they've been getting. Apparently Jay Leno mentioned them in his monologue the other day. You know you've hit the mainstream when Jay Leno's talking about you...

Edited December 6, 2004 by dknywbg (log)

[hshiau]

Once in a while, I'll still get a box of the sugary stuff (Crunchberries are a fave, as is Boo Berry when it's in season) and eat it as dessert. And if I'm staying over at a friend's for the weekend, where she has a big variety of cereal, I'll usually indulge there.

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Where are you getting your Boo Berry? As far as I know, I can't get it here in NYC.

[MarketStEl]

Weird, I just don't get it, but then again, I don't particularly like cereal...

Coffee shops make since to me because they can often make a better product than one can make at home, having access to the best equipment, etc.  Bagel shops are the same boat, I don't have huge bagels loaded with cool stuff, multiple flavors of cream cheese, and lox in my cabinets, but they do.  This Cereality joint seems to have just boxes of retail cereal and a few things to toss on top... wouldn't take much time or money to get the same effect at home.

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Let's see...a typical 20-some-odd-ounce box of cereal goes for anywhere from $3 to $6, depending on the brand and variety.

Unless you've got a very large family whose tastes run the gamut, chances are you're not going to be keeping six different boxes of cereal around your house. A Variety-Pak, maybe.

So let's say you've got a sudden urge to mix Count Chocula with Frosted Flakes and Froot Loops, and top it all with bananas, strawberries and sprinkles just for good measure. You can:

--Run down to the supermarket and plunk down about $20 for all the stuff you need, then serve a bowl of this to everyone in your family and anyone who stops by to visit between now and the time the bananas start to overripen, or

--Go to this place and let them serve you a single bowl of this mix for $3.50 to $5.

Now, this is purely a hypothetical, as I do not know exactly which 30 cereals they carry (despite my having walked past this place three times since it opened, I've not yet gone in). Besides, I doubt that most of us have even fantasized about eating Count Chocula, Frosted Flakes and Froot Loops all in the same bowl. But I can see the potential for some really campy fun in doing something like this, and college students would be exactly the people who would go for it. (We grownups would probably not miss Cap'n Crunch if it disappeared from store shelves tomorrow, but Penn students sure did when the campus dining service removed it from its cereal menu.)

Wonder if they have a fiber trifecta--All-Bran, Grape-Nuts and GoLean Crunch?

[MarketStEl]

Since I see people were weighing in on a different thread (since merged with this one) with their childhood cereal memories, here are mine:

I didn't really go for all the artificially colored, flavored super-sugary stuff, except for Froot Loops. My favorite cold cereal, hands down, was Quaker Life, the stuff Mikey likes, followed by the three varieties of Chex in this order: rice, wheat, corn. After that, Grape-Nuts, about the only cereal out there that really does stay crunchy in milk.

But my favorite cereal of all was Cream of Wheat, with sugar and a pat of butter on top.

All of this made or served with whole milk, of course. No fat police in my family, not in the 1960s, no siree.

I too have gotten a little less sugary as I've gotten older. I still like Grape-Nuts and Chex (including Multi-Bran Chex), but have substituted Cheerios for the Life and eat GoLean Crunch more often than any of these others. That is, when I eat cereal at all. A more typical breakfast for me is a slice of toast with butter or a bagel with cream cheese, accompanied by a glass of fruit juice and a cup of tea.

[viva]

Unless you've got a very large family whose tastes run the gamut, chances are you're not going to be keeping six different boxes of cereal around your house.  A Variety-Pak, maybe.

Ah, but I'm single and I keep 4-5 boxes in rotation. There's different cereal moods that must be met:

Sugary mood - Sugar Smacks (I refuse to call them honey smacks)

Fiber mood - Cracklin' Oat Bran

Flakes mood - Smart Start

Crunchy mood - Kashi Go Lean Crunch

No milk mood - Granola

I also get the occasional hankering for Fruit Loops, but the box disappears quickly (you can eat a lot of Fruit Loops in one sitting).

I'm thinking about Fruity Pebbles right now. Pink milk mood.

It's not like the stuff goes bad as long as you keep the pouch closed so it doesn't get stale!

[NulloModo]

My current favorite is Carbolite Apple Cinnamon Granola. It tastes just like real granola, and with a bit of heavy cream poured over makes for quite and energy rich and filling breakfast.

When I was younger I was all about Grape Nuts (which I think I always called Great Nuts) with way too much sugar added (enough to make some sugar-milk sludge at the bottom) and some softish fruit on top, like bannanas or peaches. I think my grandmom in AL got me hooked on that.

[therese]

Just checked the pantry, and we've presently got 10 different kinds of cereal in rotation. None of them sweeter than Kashi Go Lean, and most fairly heavy on the bran.

There are four of us in the household, including kids age 11 and 14.

[Diann]

I love cereal, but AS a current Penn student, I have to say -- yuck. I know people who go to Cereality on a regular basis because it's a relatively cheap meal compared to other lunch options, but still, there are a ton of lunch trucks around here, and who wants to pay $3+ for a bowl of cereal?

I *do* think it's an interesting business venture, given that they're partnering with Quaker (to do market research, I think?). And it's a good fit for Penn -- it matches the other yuppie retail outlets on campus. But I wish we could replace Cereality with a decent Italian place (there are no shortage of these in Philadelphia, but you have to cross the Schuykill to find one)

Cereality did get a ton of press during its opening, though, and I think they do decent business, though I don't really understand why. (I know I mentioned the "cheap lunch" option above, and it does have a central location, but flavored milk really isn't for me. Or stirring a bunch of stuff into my cereal. Or making multiple cereals into "shakes".)

[Gifted Gourmet]

Miami Herald article on the cereal restaurant business

In the 55 days that The Cereal Bowl has been open, the three entrepreneurs behind the venture have learned more about their market than they ever did during months of industry research and poring over plans. It's not that they didn't do their homework, but their entrepreneurial crystal ball couldn't account for things like Little Leaguers, health freaks and catering opportunities'

'We're trying to find ways to make money off this that were never budgeted for on our business plan,'' said Kenneth.The trio are also trying to figure out how to build on what appears to be their natural strengths -- youngsters and health aficionados

The original plan expected more teenagers but it didn't turn out that way, it appears ...

[MarketStEl]

I *do* think it's an interesting business venture, given that they're partnering with Quaker (to do market research, I think?). And it's a good fit for Penn -- it matches the other yuppie retail outlets on campus. But I wish we could replace Cereality with a decent Italian place (there are no shortage of these in Philadelphia, but you have to cross the Schuykill to find one)

Cereality did get a ton of press during its opening, though, and I think they do decent business, though I don't really understand why. (I know I mentioned the "cheap lunch" option above, and it does have a central location, but flavored milk really isn't for me. Or stirring a bunch of stuff into my cereal. Or making multiple cereals into "shakes".)

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How did I breeze by this post when you originally posted it?

I assume they're still chowing down on cereal at Penn. It still boggles my mind too, but hey, I guess there are folks out there who get a cereal jones at any hour of the day.

In case you're still hanging out here, Diann, I have a couple of comments re: decent Italian places:

--You can't have everything in University City! (Though my former employer did try, and still does.) This is a big, wonderful old city, and if this gives you an excuse to explore it, so much the better.

--You mean to tell me Penne doesn't count?