There will be no Fruit Loops for Thanksgiving - at least not at The Cereal Bowl.
The start-up café, which hopes to lure in the crowds by offering more than 35 different kinds of breakfast cereal, was hoping to have its grand opening this month. Then came the hurricanes.
``Katrina, Wilma - all the Ya Ya Sisters have slowed everyone down,'' said Michael Glassman, one of the three friends behind the venture.
Wilma put the brakes on construction for three days, and the company's sign-maker has been so overwhelmed with repair work that The Bowl's storefront logo has yet to get its final permit.
Anyone who has ever started a business knows that an opening date is little better than a moving target. And since the trio behind The Cereal Bowl launched their venture in earnest several months back, they've seen proposed start dates come and go.
But with major plumbing out of the way and custom-made furniture awaiting installation, the partners are confident the café - with its laid-back atmosphere of couches and plasma TVs - will materialize at 1560 S. Dixie Hwy. by early December.
``Unless there's another hurricane, tornado or natural disaster,'' partner Kenneth Rader is quick to add.
Starting with October's Business Monday cover story, The Herald has been following progress at The Cereal Bowl each month as the fledgling entrepreneurs - Glassman and twin brothers Josh and Kenneth Rader, all 24 - try to turn their first venture into a livelihood.
Despite the bare cement floors and the piles of construction debris, there are plenty of signs that opening day is fast approaching.
HIRING FRENZY
For starters, the partners are in a hiring frenzy. Glassman, with a Master's degree in organizational resource leadership from Palm Beach Atlantic University, will be the Cereal Bowl's general manager and is running the recruiting operation.
``My hypothesis was that we would see lots of applications from college kids,'' he said. ``We were wrong.''
Since posting the positions online and at local universities, résumés have come in from across the board. His first interview this week is with a gentleman who may have more business experience than the three entrepreneurs combined.
``I want to know - with all his experience - how he would feel working with someone with less experience than him. He's going to know a lot more than his manager,'' said Glassman. ``But I think it would be great if he would agree to work with us and bring in his knowledge.''
The one spot The Cereal Bowl has filled is the assistant manager position. The person they tapped is currently working at an undisclosed Starbucks and was ``fascinated'' by the concept of The Cereal Bowl, Glassman said.
Because Glassman will be spending more time with the assistant manager than probably anyone else, save the twins, it was also important that they get along.
``He'll be my double dragon; we'll be attached at the hip,'' said Glassman.
Another sign that the project is moving faster than its construction schedule is that the business community is taking notice. The three partners were recently invited to attend the Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce meeting.
And a small army of vendors has been trying to bend their ears on everything from sandwiches to murals to promotional items. But perhaps the most intriguing offer of all came via e-mail from the Kingdom of Bhutan - wedged between China and India.
An official there, claiming to be an advisor to the Ministry of Agriculture, said she read about the Cereal Bowl online and wanted to see if they would be interested in carrying some of that nation's cereal.
CEREALS FROM BHUTAN
``The types that are available are flattened maize and flattened rice. Both types can be produced the traditional way by hand pounding or they can be flattened by a machine,'' she wrote. ``You would probably want the products that are processed by a machine as they are thinner and less chewy and also because that is the only way the product can be produced in larger quantities.''
The samples are in the mail. And so with the hopes of a Bhutanese advisor on their shoulders, the trio continues to plug away at getting their dream off the ground.
CEREAL BAR START-UP
This is the second installment in a year-long series that follows the first year in the life of a start-up business, The Cereal Bowl, whose main attraction will be cereal - 35 kinds of it. Look for the next report in December.
