Bearing Froot

Bright Spots: Cereality's variety, supplied by General Mills, Kellogg's, Post and Quaker, range from traditional to Technicolor. Photo By: Michael T. Regan

"Play with your food," exhorts the leader of the cerealist movement.

by A.D. Amorosi

No longer is cereal simply good for you each morning. Or grrrreeeeat! To David Roth, it's a mathematical equation, a code to be cracked in creating a standardized, branded restaurant format where you can eat cereal away from home all day long.

The first Cereality Cereal Bar and Cafe, co-founded by Roth with Rick Bacher, will open this week at 36th and Walnut streets, based on the success of a prototype, a kiosk that opened at Arizona State University in 2003. The University City outpost, featuring lounge couches and cafe tables, was designed with the student population in mind.

Here, upon a stage of Seinfeldian kitchen cabinets, you can choose from 33 cereals from brands like Quaker, General Mills, Kellogg's and Post. Thirty-four choices of toppings and three types of milk, plus an assortment of soy and specialty milks, complete the bowl. You—and any other fans of all-day breakfast—end up with two full cups of whatever cereals you want, a topping and milk in a leakproof container, meant as a full meal for under $4. Pajama-clad "cereologists" behind the counter may point you toward their mixes—like "Devil Made Me Do It," a blend of Cocoa Puffs and Lucky Charms with chocolate milk flavor crystals, topped with malt balls. Or you can check out made-to-order menu items, including specialty hot oatmeal mixes like "Banana Brown Betty." Once you're a regular, you can save your favorite selections in the store's Invent-a-Blend touch screen, and it will remember what you like for next time.

Sound colder than the milk you'd splash on your Wheaties? What with Roth, 41, and his partner, chief creative officer Bacher, both based in Colorado, tapped into your psyche?

Not cold. Just logical.

Roth, who spent 14 years studying human development and behavioral and organizational psychology, subsequently worked with corporations on managing depression in the workplace. Bored, he picked up on entrepreneurial enterprises focused on travel and cooking. Rather than go on any trips, he concentrated on epicurean travel, starting the magazine Palate and Spirit before the foodie phenom. He became an associate publisher at Fodor's Mobile Travel Guide, where he learned about branding and striking partnerships with outside organizations like Apple and General Motors.

Then came his big idea: "I started observing a trend—people eating cereal all the time, kids with their parents, grown men behind desks during meetings, everywhere," he remembers.

With his brand development skills, Roth devoted time, money and passion into exploring the possibility of a retail business around the love of cereal and the particularities and habits of its consumers. "I saw that people personalized their cereal-eating experiences," he says. "One guy liked his Lucky Charms with milk. But not too much milk. And chocolate chips. Another guy had another way of eating Lucky Charms with equal fixation. Then there were people who ate oatmeal as kids. They still ate it the same way." Roth observed a purity in eating habits—a sense of personal obligation that, no matter what else got eaten during a given day, one's cereal was given special devotion.

Some people did it for health. Some did it as a trophy, for a fun feeling or nostalgia. In conversation, Roth paints a gorgeous sense memory of cereal boxes and the smells that wafted out immediately upon opening. Mmm, Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Ahh, Cheerios.

"These people might love hot dogs. But these same people didn't eat one every day. Eating cereal every day made them feel as if they were doing something good for themselves, something healthy."

So Cereality was born, with a business model rooted in habits and tastes (bananas and Lucky Charm-mallows, known in the industry as marbits, are the most popular toppings). "There's no worry about whether or not they like they product. We know they do. The system stays the same—how you order." Roth's method has a patent pending. His menu items are trademarked. Financials? He won't discuss them.

How can they sell 32-ounce buckets of cereal for about $4 when cereal's essentially a very inexpensive food?

Roth does state that Quaker is a strategic partner and investor in the business. "All of the manufacturers—competitors—are helping us. They know I'm increasing sales of their product. It's the first time these brands are united. Everyone wins. We're bringing excitement to cold cereal." Roth retains patent lawyers who worked on the Amazon "1-click" case.

This method has three ordering options, each with a slogan. There's "Your Cereal. Your Way," the buffet selection bowl. Then there's "Your Cereal. Our Way," a series of products, including cereal bars and signature combinations suggested by the store; its most popular blend is "Life Experience," with Life Cereal, sliced almonds, bananas and a drizzle of honey. "That's my personal fave amongst the Signature Blends," states Roth. "People try it and they get hooked."

And finally there's "Your Cereal. A Whole New Way." Here Cereality heads towards savory, sweet or salty snack items you can munch all day, like Zingapore Fling, (with chow mein noodles and wasabi peas). Under drinks, there's Slurrealities, with flavor-thick milk like that at the end of a bowl with cereal as its main component. Varieties such as Bran New Day are super-substantial: "It's got all the fiber of bran and all the flavor of strawberries, bananas and yogurt," describes Roth.

With a Chicago location slated to open next year, Cereality, says Roth, is "the legitimate, adult way to play with your food." That might not be a motto worthy of Tony the Tiger. But it's a start.

Cereality opens Tue., Nov. 30, University Square, 36th and Walnut sts, www.cereality.com.