Sunday, May 11, 2008

Berkeley, Ca.

The city that's home to UC Berkeley (or Cal if you're talking sports) is pretty much a typical college town, with a slightly heavier dose of head shops, Asian restaurants, street vendors and gutter punks. The guy standing on the bench above was concerned with everyone knowing that the Dali Lama is no saint.
This is the commercial center of Berkeley, just a few blocks from the edge of campus. Another street, Telegraph Avenue, is home to most of the businesses that cater to the student population.
One of the avenue's newest tenants is Moo...licious, a cafe that sells bowls of breakfast cereal. I'M NOT KIDDING!

A bowl of one of the 46 cereals offered at Moo...licious, with one of 36 toppings, will set you back about $3.50, according to this article that appeared in The Daily Californian. For that price, you can practically buy an entire box of cereal.

The restaurant also serves cereal sandwiches. The place was empty when I poked my head in, but that might have had something to do with the late afternoon hour - way too late for eating breakfast.

I'm wondering if the owners tested the concept before opening the shop. Do they really believe a cereal restaurant can survive beyond its initial novelty phase?

For something like this to work, it has to be way over the top in terms of design and curb appeal. A blow-up Tony Tiger and counters sporting cow spots just don't do it. This doesn't seem to like a well thought out idea.
This shop across the street was offering trans-fat-free donuts.

1 comment:

MooLicious, Telegraph's Cereal Bar said...

Hey Keith,

Thanks for taking the time to talk a little about your experiences at Moo...Licious. We are having a lot of fun and just launched our new cereal ice cream!

We want to make the store even more fun for all our customers - got any suggestions?

-Arielle from Moo...Licious