Rocco Monteleone came to Raleigh six months ago with a dream: to bring cereal to the masses. Monteleone’s restaurant Bowls!, which specializes in cereal, will open its doors for the last time on Saturday. Monteleone said that he owned a similar cereal restaurant in his former home of Gainesville, Fla., near the University of Florida campus. He decided to open a new restaurant in Raleigh, hoping that the proximity of the restaurant to campus would help energize sales. However, Monteleone said that that has not been the case. “When I had my restaurant in Gainesville, it was about a mile from campus, and I had numbers there that were comparable to here, where I’m right across the street,” Monteleone said. “I can’t even understand that.”

Monteleone blamed the slow business on the lack of foot traffic on Hillsborough Street. “We’re closing because the street’s just too slow. There’s no foot traffic. I have people that work for me here who say there’s always guys out there that try to hit them up for money. Everyone I’ve talked with says they don’t like coming out here,” Monteleone said. “That’s kind of odd. That’s just crazy to be across from a university and have no foot traffic.”

The restaurant specialized in selling cereal by the bowl or as a part of an all-you-can-eat special. The restaurant featured 50 different cereals as well as eight different kinds of milk. The selection included many specialty and hard-to-find cereals.

The restaurant’s decor features red leather booths with plasma-screen televisions at each booth. The restaurant also features many decorations from movie posters to a Michael Jordan cutout.

Alex Porter, a sophomore in architecture and former Bowls! employee, shared Monteleone’s feeling that the lack of foot traffic on Hillsborough Street was to blame for the restaurant’s closing.

“I was kind of sad to see it go,” Porter said. “I blame Hillsborough Street rather than the restaurant. It was a cool idea. It just never got any business.”

While Monteleone said in an earlier Technician article that as far as he knows, Bowls! is the only cereal restaurant in North Carolina, the idea of a restaurant specializing in cereal is not a new one.

Cereality, a “cereal bar and cafe,” has already opened several different locations throughout the country, many of which center their business near college campuses. Those who are mourning the loss of Bowls! will have to travel a long way to get their fix, as the nearest Cereality location is in Charleston, S.C. As for Monteleone, he said he will return to his native Florida, but will not attempt to open a cereal based restaurant like Bowls! again.