Cereality Cereal Bar and Cafe ® is the first restaurant business to ever break the mold of traditional foodservice to bring a unique, highly personal, healthy eating experience to the consumer, entirely focused around brand-name cereals. Founders David Roth and Rick Bacher conceived of the first-ever cereal bar and café retail concept back in the late 1990’s, inspired to create a home-for-cereal-away-from-home for the 95% of the American public who claim to enjoy it. With their first location opening at Arizona State University in 2003, Cereality's customers choose from Cereality cold or hot signature cereal blends, or select from more than 30 brand-name cereal s and over 40 toppings and mix-ins to create their ultimate bowl topped with their favorite assorted milk and hot and cold beverage. The offerings extend to parfaits, smoothies, cereal bars and other bakery items. The Cereality customer experience is enhanced by a home atmosphere — with kitchen, living room and dining room areas — and the preparation of orders by pajama-clad Cereologists.™

Cereality® garnered worldwide attention with its first press release, stating: "95% of Americans like cereal. 57% like sex. We’ve got cereal." The brand has been featured in numerous publications such as People, Newsweek, TIME, The New York Times, USA Today, Entrepreneur, and Business 2.0 and the founders have appeared on various Food Network programs, CNN, The Today Show and CNBC.

In 2006, Cereality® won the coveted EXPY® Award for "Experience Stager of the Year" by Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore, authors of The Experience Economy ; was named 2006 Fast Company ® “Customer First—Local Hero”; and was 2006 Foodservice Packaging Award Winner — for Cereality's "My Cereal. My Way.®" cereal box, and SLOOP™ (spoon-straw utensil). The company was also voted "Chicagoland's Best Bang for the Buck" ZAGAT SURVEY® 2006/07 Chicago Restaurants; and voted "Best Family-Friendly Restaurant" by AOL City Guide: Philadelphia.

In 2007, Cereality was acquired by newly formed franchising leader, Kahala•Cold Stone – now with 14 brands, and over 3000 locations worldwide, including Cold Stone Creamery and Blimpie.

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“When we formed Kahala•Cold Stone, we promised to aggressively seek out acquisitions of leading brands in the QSR space to grow the portfolio of franchise brands for partners, and this is the first of many to come,” said Kevin Blackwell, chairman and chief strategist of Kahala•Cold Stone. “Cereality is one of the most exciting, distinctive concepts to be launched in the past decade, attracting a great deal of interest from franchisees and cereal-craving customers alike.”

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The Cereality Acquisition: Big Ideas Live
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Read the full press release about the Cereality acquisition at kahalacoldstone.com
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