It's not quite trendy Shoreditch or cool Camden but the Bullring is now the home of the first Cereal Killer cafe outside of London.
Brothers Gary and Alan Keery who set up the first cereal cafe in Shoreditch, London three years ago, have chosen Birmingham to launch their first regional branch, which opened this morning (November 10).
It sells - yes you guessed - a colourful and rather wondrous selection of cereals from morning to night.
Set up in the shopping centre's Link Street, it offers 120 different types of cereal (with a separate US and British menu) as well as 80 types of flavoured milk and will open from 8am until 8pm - so if you fancy cereal for dinner you can have it.
There are also pop tarts ranging from peanut butter to blue raspberry on the menu too. And toast too if you’re feeling boring.
Cereals you can choose from include Apple Jacks, Chocolate Lucky Charms and Hershey’s Cookies and Cremes.
There is a tempting cereal cocktails menu (no alcohol) with names like Mint Choco Hipster and Shooty Shooty Bang Bang. We highly recommend Sticky Monkey - made with toffee crisp cereal, chopped banana, whipped cream , crushed digestive, toffee sauce and served with a cute mini milk bottle of banana milk (£4.90)
The cafe is also next door to recently opened barber’s Barberology - making this part of the Bullring the new haven for hipsters.
But Alan told us that Cereal Killer cafe is definitely not a hipster cafe.
He said: “We had a look at the outlet at Bullring at the same time as Barberology and it’s great they also chose to open here, but we are not a cafe for hipsters. Probably the only person you will see in here with a beard is me."
“We are a very family friendly cafe. Kids of course love us. We sell very high sugar treats and we’ve found that even in places like Camden and Shoreditch we got a lot of families coming in.
"So we knew a shopping centre like the Bullring would be a great place to open and Birmingham is the biggest city outside London so opening here was a no brainer.”
Alan was a retail manager for SuperDry and his brother Gary worked in sales when they came up with the idea of a cereal cafe in 2013.
“We were really hung over wandering around Shoreditch and desperate for a bowl of rice crispies. We just thought why is there nowhere where you can order a bowl of cereal? So that’s how it all started.
"A year later we opened our first cafe. We knew we could be open in the evenings as people do fancy a bowl of cereal in the evenings and with our cereal cocktails, they are very much a dessert experience.”
There is a 90s nostalgic theme at the cafe with arcade games and walls festooned in 90s memorabilia, including cereal packets and photos of Tony the Tiger from the legendary Frosties adverts.
There are also single beds covered in cartoon bedspreads where you can sit and enjoy your sugar puffs. Thankfully Cereal Killers also serve coffee - which should prevent early morning diners wanting to get back under the covers.
Cereal Killer Cafe is open from 8am-8pm Monday -Saturday and 9am-6pm on Sunday.
