London is currently awash with places offering upmarket versions of fast food. There are gourmet hot dog places, upmarket fried-chicken shops and a smörgåsbord of fancy burger bars. But what about the most convenient food of all, the breakfast cereal? Surely no one could give that a hipster makeover? Enter identical twins from Belfast, Alan and Gary Keery, who have done just that.
The twist is that their new cafe, Cereal Killer which opens on Wednesday, doesn’t sell sustainable artisan breakfast cereal, but nostalgic classics including Rice Krispies, Frosties and Special K.
Their cafe, which used to be a video shop where all the videotapes were filed by director, is a shrine to the 1980s – Transvision Vamp on the stereo; paintings of fictional serial killers made out of cereal alongside novelty cereal packets from the 1980s or early 90s.
Gary told me how the idea came to them when they were hungover one morning and what they really craved was breakfast cereal. They tried to crowdfund the project but didn’t have enough takers. The publicity, however, enabled them to get a loan and a sympathetic landlord.
They offer British, American and global cereals all at £2.50 for a small bowl with a choice of milks and toppings such as banana or marshmallows. I asked for the most obscure cereal they have: an Oreo cereal from South Korea – “very hard to source”. Gary recommends having it with mini Oreo biscuits and chocolate milk. I went for plain milk but still found it too sweet and only managed to eat half a bowl. Also on the menu are what Gary calls “cereal cocktails – mix different cereals together with different milks and toppings to create different flavours.” All those flavours are, however, incredibly sweet.
Gary is confident that people won’t just come for breakfast: “Many people eat cereal throughout the day as a snack or a meal … we will be open until 10pm.” Plenty of people might choose to snack at home on cereal – but will anyone want to eat it when they’re out?
Gary’s enthusiasm is infectious. “My favourite at the moment are marshmallow-flavoured Rice Krispies – absolutely beautiful. We always have about 30 or 40 boxes at home.” In many ways, Cereal Killer is reminiscent of a lost episode of Seinfeld where George tries to talk Jerry into opening a diner that sells only breakfast cereals (“ONLY CEREAL!”). Will it work in real life?
