Millenials may hate cereal but cereal doesn’t hate Millenials.
Kellogg’s the 110-year-old purveyor of sweet morning confections including Corn Pops, Rice Krispies, Froot Loops and beyond launched new cereal-only café in Times Square on July 4th.
It’s not the first all-cereal restaurant to open in New York City. Last August, New
York’s very first cereal café, KITH opened in Brooklyn, boasting a menu of 23 types
of cereal, 25 toppings and five milks equating to 412,115,533,824 possibilities.
The seasonal menu at Kellogg’s NYC is limited, but no less creative. Pastry genius
Christina Tosi of Milk Bar fame invented recipes like “The Corny Blues” combining corn pops, blueberry jam, lemon zest and salt in a bowl as well as ice cream sundaes like the “Peppermint Patty” using chocolate Frosted Mini-Wheats, cocoa powder and fresh mint leaves.
Bowls start at $6.50 for a small or $8.50 for a small sundae using local Blue Marble Ice Cream. Tosi’s beloved Cereal Milk is not (yet) on the menu. A box of cereal usually costs less than $6.50 at any New York City grocery store, so this may be a hard sell.
For those who are really into fancying their cereal up, the café’s raid the pantry option, starting at $3.50 for a small bowl and an additional $1.50 per topping, offers a mix-and-match option similar to any frozen yogurt shop.
Inside Kellogg’s NYC, guests order at the counter and then wait with a buzzer to
announce their cereal has been placed in a numbered cubby. We’ve been told other
surprises will emerge in the individual cubbies, like a morning paper or Yankees memorabilia or Hamilton tickets. Bet you never found those in a cereal box.
One can easily imagine a tourist squealing with glee upon finding a special treat in a New York-priced cereal breakfast, before transporting the cardboard bowl to be eaten New York style on the red plastic steps of TKTS. Any New Yorkers worth their bodega bagel won’t have time for this in the morning. After work snack, maybe. One could also buy a box of cereal at a bodega, a pint of milk and some fresh herbs and make a super-sized portion of any Kellogg’s NYC recipe.
Anthony Rudolf, a partner in Kellogg’s NYC admits to not having eaten a bowl of
cereal in years before coming on to the project. Since, he has reignited a love for cereal.
Previously, Rudolf worked as the director of operations for Thomas Keller and as a service director for John-Georges said that there’s not much difference between a fine dining environment and a cereal restaurant. “I think the biggest differences are more physical than they are philosophical,” he said. “The goal of any restaurant is to nurture and nourish and to make people happy. That’s the same no matter where
you are, whether it’s a three-hour nine-course tasting menu or a five minute bowl of
cereal, milk and some fresh fruit.”
Rudolf, who is on the cusp of Millennial and Gen-X (born 1980) isn’t concerned
about cereal’s bad rap with this generation. “There’s so many of them, they don’t all have the same thoughts and patterns,” he said. “Nobody alive in the United States has not grown up eating cereal.“ He thinks that Tosi’s unique creations will lure in all ages of cereal eaters “getting a whole new look at something that has been so familiar.”
Rudolf also noted Millenials get a bad rap because there is so much sharing of everything. Luckily, these colorful cereal bowls are seriously Instagrammable, if not overpriced.
Here’s a sneak peek:
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Allegedly all of these spoons were tested to find the perfect disposable plastic cereal spoon, center, used at the cafe.
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Berry Au Lait is pretty much something you'd make at home.
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Life in Color is the most beautiful bowl.
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The Chai Line puts chai powder on top of cereal to make your milk chai flavored. Clever! And copiable!
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Berry Me in Green Tea snap, crackles and pops its way into becoming a green tea cereal.
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Menus.
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Menus.
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Your mom's cereal.
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Also your mom's cereal.
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The pistachio and lemon is about as luxe as it gets here, topped with lemon zest and fresh thyme.