Bowls' recipe: Cereal fixed the way customers like it
01.10.2006, 09:42
N.C. State University sophomore Casey Johnston loves cereal. Her hands-down favorite: Lucky Charms.
"I can eat cereal for any meal," she said as another spoonful went into her mouth at Bowls in Raleigh.
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It's lunchtime on Wednesday, and Johnston is sitting in a red booth at the Hillsborough Street restaurant, which sells nostalgia and comfort in big, white ceramic bowls. In the small space, customers hang out, watch TV, study, crunch and munch under the decor of Flutie Flakes cereal boxes and Scooby Doo lunchboxes.
Cereal dispensers that resemble big gumball machines are prominently displayed on the counter. They're filled with childhood favorites: Frosted Flakes, Rice Krispies, Trix, Apple Jacks, Froot Loops, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cookie Crisp and Kix.
Rocco Monteleone opened the store last week. It's actually his second attempt at a cereal joint: He used to run one in Gainesville, Fla., but said the location wasn't close enough to campus to work.
Now he's trying again, and he's not the only one. Cereal cafes are popping up across the country, most near college campuses. The most well-known chain is Cereality, which opened its first store in 2003 and has locations in Philadelphia, Chicago and Tempe, Ariz.
"It's the kind of thing a kid would come up with -- like, 'I'm going to have a store where we sell nothing but cereal,' " said Mary Owen, 17, who dropped in Tuesday after class at Raleigh Charter High School. "You'd never, ever do it, but they did."
The restaurants' cool factor is appreciated by poor, time-crunched students. But they do more than give students a cheap sugar rush. They bring back memories of childhood and home.
Ask N.C. State senior Chris Sunde, who went in Wednesday morning looking for pinkish-red Franken Berry cereal. He spotted it as soon as he walked in.
"Dude, you can't get Franken Berry anywhere," he said, getting ready to belly up to the cereal bar. "I had it once when I was really little, and you can just never find it."
Bowls employee Kasey Ginsberg has seen that reaction before. "A lot of people see cereals their mom wouldn't let them have," she said. "Or their parents wouldn't let them mix cereals, and now they can."
Bowls customers can mix Cookie Crisp and Apple Jacks, then cover them in chocolate milk, if they so desire. Skim, 1 percent, 2 percent, organic and soy milk are available.
Employees dish up the cereal, and customers pour their own milk, because some like a little, and others like a lot.
A cereal restaurant might sound simple, but research went into Monteleone's decision. Because some people like to drink the milk from the bowl, for instance, the bowls have no lip, to provide easy access.
So what will a bowl of cereal set you back? A 4-ounce bowl goes for $1.99. A 6.5-ounce bowl is $2.99. If you mix cereals, add 10 cents per variety, or go all out with the five-flavor "cerealcide" for $3.39.
So far, Monteleone said the "monster cereals" -- Franken Berry, Count Chocula and Boo Berry -- are selling the best.
Monteleone's challenge will be keeping customers once the restaurant's novelty wears off, said Bob Goldin, executive vice president of Chicago-based Technomic, which tracks the food industry."Realistically, you're selling a product you can have at home," he said.
Of course, that's what people said about coffee. Monteleone thinks he's on to something.
So does Jimmy Sugar, a N.C. State senior who popped in during a break between classes.
"Cereal is brain food," he said, scarfing down Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch . "And that's good because I have to go take a genetics test."