Cereal Killer Café is a chain of
cafés that serve branded
breakfast cereals. The original café was located on
Brick Lane in
Spitalfields,[1]London and was the first cereal-themed café in the United Kingdom.[2] The chain announced the closure of its UK locations on 8 July 2020 as a result of the
COVID-19 pandemic.[3] As of 2023, the
Dubai cafe remains open and the chain's website continues to offer customers over 100 different types of cereal.[4][5][6]
Development
Identical twins Alan and Gary Keery, from
Belfast, came up with the idea of selling breakfast cereal after experiencing a morning
hangover during a lunch break in Shoreditch and craving a "sugary cereal fix".[7] The brothers were initially dissuaded from pursuing the project but continued after conducting their own
market research. Inspired by established cereal cafes in the United States and the premise of the 2007 film
Flakes, they went about asking consumers on the streets whether or not they would buy into the concept.[8] They discovered that more than half of the people they had asked would consider visiting their cafe. Funding for the proposal came from a business loan following an unsuccessful £60,000
crowdfunding attempt on
Indiegogo.[9] They claimed they found it difficult to rent a location based on their business venture but eventually settled on an old
video store.[10][11]
Business
The two-storey café was situated on
Brick Lane, near
Shoreditch, and employed eight staff. The interior was designed to reflect a
retro style with exposed brickwork,
formica furniture and 1980s and '90s music. Among the decor were novelty cereal boxes, vintage milk bottles and other cereal related memorabilia.[12] The cafe offered more than 100 different varieties of global cereal brands, 12 kinds of milk and 20 toppings. It also sold coffee, toast and
poptarts.[13]
In 2014 the brothers were challenged by
Channel 4 over the price of their bowls of cereal in
Tower Hamlets. After being told the London borough had some of the highest rates of poverty in the country,[14][15][16][17] Gary denied this was the case and said his cereal was "cheap for the area" before refusing to continue with the interview.[18][19]
Media commentary ranged from praise of their
entrepreneurship from
Boris Johnson[20] to criticism pointing at
gentrification around Shoreditch,[21][22] with the Keery terminating a 2014 interview with
Channel Four after reporter Symeon Brown asked "Do you think local people will be able to afford £3.20 cereal?"[23] In response, the brothers wrote an open letter to the broadcaster on Facebook, characterising the reporting as "unfair" and announcing plans to provide provide free breakfasts for underprivileged children.[23][24]
On an evening in September 2015, anti-gentrification activists threw paint at the building and wrote the word "scum" across it.[25]