A little known (mostly) healthy food café niche is spreading across the country. It’s called the cereal cafe and comes with names like Cereal Barn, Cereality, Cereal Bowl, Cereal Bar, and Cereal Boxx. All of these cereal cafés are located adjacent to college campuses because students like the casualness of cereal. Cereal is also non-threatening and has lots of variety. Cereal is comfort food.

Unlike a salad bar where you usually pay by the weight, at the cereal joints you pay by the offerings such as one or two scoops of cereal (with up to 30 choices), one or two toppings, and milk. These are not high ticket items so I wonder how much volume they need to turn a profit and what do these cereal cafes do when school is not in session.

The cereal cafes have also have hot cereals, a coffee and espresso bar, parfaits, juices, and homemade cereal bars and similarly less substantial fare. 

I’m far from being a college student but do admit to eating cereal for dinner or lunch a few times a month. Sometimes I’m hungry and don’t have any dinner foods available or am too lazy to make something more substantial so I end up eating a bowl of cereal.

I imagine that the ebb and flow of a cereal joint would be busy in the a.m. and for people whose breakfast start at lunch and perhaps afternoon snack and then after dinner but perhaps the dinner hours would be less busy.

A zillion years ago I went on a swinging singles tour to Acapulco. A bunch of us were having a late breakfast and on a whim — I ordered cornflakes with vanilla ice cream, bananas and peaches. The next day everyone ordered it. (I’ve always been a trend setter.)  The chef came out of the kitchen and said he was going to put it on the menu as Karenna’s Special Breakfast.

This gets me thinking of cereal combinations: What about steel cut oatmeal with vanilla yogurt and chunky applesauce?  Or a split banana with vanilla yogurt, mango chunks, pineapple and blueberries and frosted mini shredded wheat?

If the sky is the limit, what would be your cereal pleasure?