Haastattelu

INT: The newest new: eateries serve up cereal.. So move over, iPods, to make room for the next new "it" thing -- actually, a nearly 150-year-old thing that's just coming into its "itness": the old reliable Cereal! It gets us started in the morning, provides an afternoon lift, elicits nostalgic images of Saturday-morning cartoons -- and, as some advertisements are fond of reminding us, keeps us regular. Reportedly developed in 1863 by a Dansville, N.Y., doctor, cereal is now the subject of blogs, cookbooks and even art shows. It's also the focus of a restaurant chain, Cereality, started in 2003 by Westbury native David Roth and a partner, Rick Bacher.
Roth and Bacher had seen office workers sneak handfuls of cereal at their desks. They'd heard discussions of cereal rituals -- say, Cheerios with banana and M&Ms. And they realized "the potency of the topic," wondering why, if people have such special relationships with branded cereal, there was no restaurant catering to their preferences -- a place where it's "always Saturday morning," a phrase they have since trademarked.
Enter the Cereality kiosk at Arizona State University, followed by cafés in Philadelphia and Chicago, as well as a kiosk on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. David Roth, you seem to have nailed it? Does the business flourish?

ROTH: Oooh, I wouldn’t want to put any figures out there, but let’s say we’re pleased with our results so far -- to the extent that we're about to start franchising, with close to 600 inquiries from would-be-cereal restaurateurs in the metropolitan area alone.