Whole wheat, and more importantly, fiber, is apparently in short supply as far as breakfast items go. Other than oatmeal, granola or whole wheat toast or bagel, I’d be hard pressed to name any other whole grain breakfast items… but then again, I’m not all too clear what exactly is a whole grain. Thanks to
Sally Squires’s recent article in the Washington Post, now I know.Speaking of cereals… I digress: There’s a new chain of stores hitting the nation’s new obsession with “going-out-and-paying-for-something-I-can-easily-make-at-home-for-much-cheaper” trend, like PB&J (e.g.
PB Loco in Minneapolis) or grilled cheese “restaurants” (like Grilled Cheese NYC on the Lower East Side). In case you were too lazy to get out of bed to pour your own bowl of milk and cereal – you can now not only drag yourself out of bed, but get dressed, get in your car and drive to nearest Cereality.“Ce-real” is certainly the way to describe this concept. You pay for someone to mix you a bowl of cereal and milk. Yes, mix. You see, the advantage, or “novelty” (ie. the reason why you should go to the trouble of going and paying for cereal to be served to you) of Cereality is that you can mix and match from an assortment of cereals and toppings. They also have their own creative cereal bars as well as the “Slurreality” – “cereal parfaits.” Or, you can even have them mix your cereal “to-go,” packaged nicely in milk-tight Chinese-take-out-like parcels.
“Cereal Parfait” 
Cereal “to-go”
On their website, Cereality boast a USA Today blurb that asks, “The latest fast-food concept is so absurdly simple, self-indulgent, and reflective of one’s inner child, that, well, how could it fail?” Um, see my previous post about dippin’ dots.
They also include absurd statistical data that’s supposed to suggest their company’s assured success: “95% Americans like cereal. 54% like sex. We’ve got cereal.” I know Americans love their cereal – but they sure do love their sex, and I’ll bet more than their cereal… I don’t know where they get these figures from.
I’m really trying to be more open minded about “trendy” foods – but this is ridiculous… but then again, if there are people out there lazy enough to drive to a cereal store, then so be it. But, here’s what really befuddles me… they only have two locations. Both are on college campuses. While college students are 1). dumb enough to pay for cereal service, 2). hold strange hours that warrant cereal consumption at all times of the day, and 3). perhaps culinarily depraved enough to actually consider “mixed” cereal a novelty, I do know college students to be extreme lazy and would do anything to avoid working for food. Has anyone noticed the popularity of college restaurants that offer deliver (e.g. pizza, Chinese, etc..)?
I would have thought that Cereality would be more practical in urban working centers where busy professionals don’t have time to “make” their own breakfast. But, then again, professionals actually work (well, some of them), and know the worth of money doesn’t justify paying someone to mix cereal for you. Why not grab something that “I wouldn’t or am too lazy make at home,” doughnuts, pastries, fruit salad, smoothie… etc…
Well, with only two stores open, I wouldn’t exactly call the “cereal bar” a trend yet. I just don’t see the appeal – do you? I guess we’ll see.
3 replies on “roughage and cereal…”
Frosted Mini Wheats, Raisin Bran, and Total. Those are the best fiber-heavy cereals…at least, if you want to get more than 1g of fiber per cup of cereal.
About Cereality, I think it’s probably one of those places you go for the schtick value. I’d be interested to see if they’re still around in 5 years after the novelty has worn off.
Thanks for stopping by my blog. Yours is great as well. :)
adam.
thanks for the compliment. yeah, i’m pretty clear on the “whole grain” cereals – but there are some fuzzy areas that i wasn’t clear on before.
for instance, did you know that grape nuts has no fiber? and popcorn is considered a whole grain… i suppose if i thought about that one, i could have figured it out for myself since popcorn encompasses hull and germ…
happy blogging – again, it’s great to have found you through my friends’ blogs…
u.e.
You have a great blog here! I will be sure to book mark you. I have a olive garden restaurant site. It pretty much covers olive garden restaurant related stuff. Check it out if you get time :-)