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Cereal Killer Cafe

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Coordinates: 51°31′26″N 0°04′18″W / 51.52391°N 0.07160°W / 51.52391; -0.07160
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Cereal Killer Café
Company typeCafé
Founded2014 (2014)
FounderAlan and Gary Keery
Defunct(UK only)
FateClosed (UK only)
Headquarters
East End, London, Dubai, Doha
,
England
Number of locations
5
Websitecerealkillercafe.co.uk

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

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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 2005 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

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The interior of the Brick Lane branch

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. Despite being shown 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 Keerys 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 announced plans to provide free breakfasts for underprivileged children; however, no schools, youth groups or charities were approached.[23][24]

On an evening in September 2015, anti-gentrification activists threw paint at the building and wrote the word "scum" across it.[25]

By 2017 the brothers had opened cereal cafes in Birmingham, Dubai, Kuwait and Jordan.[26][27] The London branch of the cafe closed in 2020, with the brothers remaining to operate in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.[28]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Spitalfields" (PDF). towerhamlets.gov.uk.
  2. ^ Petroff, Alanna (9 December 2014). "London's first cereal cafe milks nostalgia". CNN. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  3. ^ "A sad Cheerio". us12.campaign-archive.com. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  4. ^ "Login • Instagram". www.instagram.com. Retrieved 14 April 2022. {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
  5. ^ "CEREAL KILLER CAFE, Dubai - Downtown Dubai - Menu, Prices & Restaurant Reviews". Tripadvisor. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  6. ^ Cafe, Cereal Killer. "Cereal Killer Cafe". The Dubai Mall. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
  7. ^ Malone, Ailbhe (17 May 2014). "There Could Be A Cereal Cafe Coming To London Soon". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 13 December 2014.
  8. ^ Brown, Brigid (5 November 2014). "WATCH: First Cereal Cafe Opens in East London". BBC America. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  9. ^ Rucki, Alexandra (17 May 2014). "Cereal café could be coming to Shoreditch if crowdfunding campaign is success". Evening Standard. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  10. ^ Jefferies, Henry (9 December 2014). "Can the Cereal Killer cafe, which sells only cereal, really make a killing?". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  11. ^ Bell, Stephanie (21 November 2014). "Cereal Killer Cafe: Belfast brothers open UK's first ever cafe selling nothing but cereal". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  12. ^ Barrie, Joshua (9 December 2014). "Have A Look Inside The UK's First Breakfast Cereal Cafe". Business Insider. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  13. ^ Jones, Rachel (4 November 2014). "UK's first cereal café to open in London". The Telegraph. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  14. ^ Molloy, Antonia (11 December 2014). "Cereal Killer cafe owner cuts short interview after he is grilled about his prices". The Independent. Retrieved 11 December 2014.
  15. ^ "Poverty rates by London borough". Trust for London. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
  16. ^ correspondent, Rupert Neate Wealth (23 December 2019). "A tale of two cities: London's rich and poor in Tower Hamlets". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 7 October 2020. {{cite news}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  17. ^ "London has highest child poverty rates across the UK". BBC News. 15 October 2014. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
  18. ^ Cowburn, Ashley (13 December 2014). "The C4 reporter had a pop. And the Cereal Killer cafe snapped back …". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
  19. ^ "Cereal cafe stops interview over price questions | Channel 4 News". YouTube. Archived from the original on 11 December 2014.
  20. ^ Johnston, Boris (15 December 2014). "Don't murder the Cereal Killers – we need people just like them". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  21. ^ Chakelian, Anoosh (12 December 2014). "In defence of the Cereal Killer café: why lazy hipster-bashing won't solve inequality". New Statesman. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  22. ^ Hardman, Isabel (11 December 2014). "In defence of the smug Cereal Café owners – and the mugs who eat there". The Spectator. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  23. ^ a b "Cereal Killer Cafe owner pens angry letter to Channel 4 in row over". Evening Standard. 13 December 2014. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
  24. ^ "Cereal Killer". facebook.com. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
  25. ^ "Cereal Killer cafe damaged in Shoreditch anti-gentrification protest". BBC News. 27 September 2015. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
  26. ^ "Worth the hype? Cereal Killer Cafe". 24 November 2017.
  27. ^ "Cereal Killer founders: 'People thought we were geniuses, others hated us'". The Guardian. 6 April 2017. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
  28. ^ Brennan, Ailis (8 July 2020). "London's Cereal Killer Cafes to close permanently 'due to Coronavirus'". Evening Standard. Retrieved 27 January 2023.
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51°31′26″N 0°04′18″W / 51.52391°N 0.07160°W / 51.52391; -0.07160

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