There’s not much to a bowl of cereal: open a box, pour some into bowl, add milk and a spoon, and dig in. But just outside of Las Vegas, there’s a café that’s taking the supermarket staple to the next level. 

The Cereal Killerz store in Las Vegas
The Cereal Killerz Kitchen serves make-your-own cereal bowls and monster milkshakes © courtesy Cereal Killerz

At the Cereal Killerz Kitchen in the Galleria at Sunset mall in Henderson, Nevada, breakfast-food lovers can choose from nearly 140 kinds of cereal and 50 different toppings to build their own bowls, and there are sweet and savory toasts on offer too. A LeBron James-themed taco – an homage to the NBA star’s favorite cereal, a waffle cone filled with Fruity Pebbles ice cream with more Fruity Pebbles on top – made its first appearance in late November. But the ice cream and the milkshakes are the real draw. 

“We encourage people to use their imagination,” says Christopher Burns, who co-owns the café with his wife, Jessica. “We also have a few specialty Killerz Milk Shakes to help people make their decision, and they are crazy to say the least.”  Take, for instance, the Strawberry Pop-Tart shake, which blends strawberry ice cream with Pop-Tart cereal, fresh strawberries, and a whole Pop-Tart, then tops it off with a whole ‘nother toaster pastry. Then there’s the Peanut Butter Lover, a concoction that lives up to its name, mixing seven types of peanut butter cereals, Reese’s Pieces, Reese’s cups, and a scoop of Skippy’s, crowned with Reese’s whipped cream. The most popular item? A Ferrero Rocher milkshake. “I would put it up against any milkshake in Las Vegas,” he says, laughing. “If it was in one of these Strip restaurants, it would be $23 at least.”

It should come as no surprise that his whole concept came from an overwhelming love of the breakfast-table must-have. “My daughter and I would eat cereal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner,” Burns says. “My wife likes fancy food, and whenever she would ask us what we wanted for dinner, we would say ‘Cinnamon Toast Crunch.’” He did some research and discovered that cereal is still the most popular breakfast item in the US, and quickly decided to run with the idea. 

But the rest of the process wasn’t so smooth. Burns signed the lease in September 2018 after a seven-month search, and the plan was to open by the end of the year. “Everything that could go wrong did,” he says. “I mean everything.” Between design setbacks, contractor issues, and red tape from the mall, construction took eight months, and the place didn’t open until this past July. 

Still, though, Burns remains enthusiastic. “Whatever you can dream up, we can do it,” he told the Los Angeles Times last month. Cereal, he said, “is just something everybody can connect with.”

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