Cereal Killer Café (2014): a London café selling only cereal — queues, outrage, expansion

The Belfast-born identical twins were out in Shoreditch, wanted a bowl of cereal and couldn't find one anywhere. They opened the UK's first cereal-only café at 139 Brick Lane in December 2014, against advice from almost everyone they knew.

A café whose entire menu is cereal: around 120 imported varieties, dozens of milks and toppings served like a bar — one obsessive product instead of a full menu.

The café stocked around 120 cereal varieties with about 20 toppings and dozens of milk options, priced bowls from about £2.50, and styled the room with cereal-box walls, cereal portraits and vintage cartoons. Cereal 'cocktails' such as 'unicorn poop' became signature items, and the two brothers ran both London branches themselves.

Queues formed from the opening week and a viral Channel 4 confrontation in December 2014 made the café a national story; within five and a half years it had served over a million bowls, expanded to Camden and Birmingham and opened a licensed branch in Dubai, with Middle East franchises following.

In December 2014, identical twins Alan and Gary Keery opened the Cereal Killer Café at 139 Brick Lane in London — a café whose entire menu was breakfast cereal. The idea started as a craving: out for breakfast in Shoreditch, they wanted a bowl of cereal and couldn't find one, so they decided to build the shop they were looking for.

The menu was deliberately narrow and deep: around 120 imported cereal varieties, about 20 toppings and dozens of milk options, with bowls priced from about £2.50. The room sold nostalgia as much as food — cereal-box walls, portraits made of cereal, vintage cartoons and retro furniture. Signature cereal 'cocktails' such as 'unicorn poop' gave the concept its own menu theatre.

The format made news faster than any advertising could have. Queues formed from the opening week; a Channel 4 interview in which the brothers defended £3.20 bowls of cereal in a poor borough went viral. The café later became the target of anti-gentrification protests in September 2015, which only added to its fame — and by 2016 the brothers were licensing the brand to Dubai, with Middle East expansion following.

One obsessive product with a hundred variations is easier to remember and spread than a full menu.

Nostalgia is the ingredient: the room sells childhood memory, not just cereal.

The price controversy and media fights became free publicity the owners leaned into.

A narrow format is franchiseable — the brand expanded via licensing across the Middle East.

An obsessive single-product format is a story in itself: one menu item, a hundred variations, and a room that sells nostalgia — the concept generates its own media coverage, queues and licensing.

The brothers opened a Camden branch in 2015 and Birmingham in late 2016, and signed a licensing deal for a Dubai branch that opened in May 2016, with further Middle East branches in Jordan and Kuwait following. The brand served over a million bowls in five and a half years, became a symbol in London's gentrification debate after the 2015 protests, and closed both London cafés permanently in July 2020 during the pandemic, keeping its online cereal shop running.