London - Identical twin brothers hope they have ticked the right boxes, and ordered in the right flavours, for their new “Cereal Killer Cafe” in London serving only cereal, with toppings and milk.
Alan and Gary Keery from Belfast offer 120 different cereals from around the world at the cafe, which they say is the first of its kind in London and opened on Wednesday. They also offer 20 toppings and 30 different types of milk.
“We thought, 'Well, why isn't there anywhere that you can just go and sit down and have a bowl of cereal?'“ Gary Keery said.
“So we have done some research into it. Would it work as a business? How would it look? Where would we get the cereal from?
“And everything was just ticking all the boxes for us so now here we are, just nearly a year and a half later and we are about to open our doors, so it's exciting.”
The cafe is on Brick Lane in London's East End, stretching across two floors, with seating for 50. The walls showcase colourful cereal boxes, plus some fictional “serial killers” rendered in cereal, while the shelves house various pieces of memorabilia from the 1980s and '90s.
“We just wanted to play on the nostalgia so we've got a lot of vintage cereal boxes. We've got all these toys that you used to get so a lot of the music we're playing is '80s and '90s music with magazines that are all '80s and '90s.
“We want people to come in and think, 'God, do you remember this?' and just really re-live, just feel like a kid again,” Keery said.
The cafe also offers cereal “cocktails” in which various cereals are mixed together.
“I think a lot of kids when they were younger used to do that themselves so they basically designed a whole range of 'cocktails' that mix them up and take advantage of the toppings we have as well,” Jules Prentice, who works at the cafe, said before demonstrating how to make a “Chocopottamus” cocktail.
The cafe offers popular British, American and international cereals, including some that are hard to source, like an Oreo-flavoured product from South Korea.
And Gary's own favourite? Marshmallow-flavoured Rice Krispies, he said, adding that he always has 30 or 40 boxes of it at home. -Reuters