A cosy new nook on Marine Drive
View(s):
The rooftop: Serene sea view
By Yomal Senerath-Yapa
As an evening train rumbles past the Marine Drive, the dusk sea mirrors the sky in mellow dying colours and we savour a massive iso wadai laden with two juicy king prawns, crisp buttery seeni sambol toast with silver tip tea finely brewed and chicken kottu, all topped with a slice of tiramisu cake and a heady tinge of espresso…
Overlooking the vast Indian Ocean, the Ceylon Stories Gallery Café is where you can have affordable tea with an array of titbits and food and also shisha, while enjoying the art on the walls (with a new artist unveiled every month). Sandwiched in between mammoth buildings down Marine Drive, this vertical café has a heady ambience.
Opened just recently, the place has four floors – downstairs dedicated to a bar and a pastry shop while the first floor has a French-looking café. Ceylon Stories being an authorised dealer for Dilmah, here you can buy tea and Ceylon souvenirs from elephants in hues of turquoise to cerise to key-tags, mugs and other memorabilia.
It is also in the first floor that you can have guided tea tastings.
The second floor is shisha lounge dominated by exorcist masks- massive yakkas looking down from black walls.
The rooftop affords a panoramic view which in the evening is magical as the breeze whips in from the sea and a busy city is in ebb, with traffic and neon lights draining towards the suburbs.
The debut artist to be featured at this gallery café is young Adithi Dinethya Fernando. Paintings of a psychedelic lion with a purplish mane, an apsara from Sigiriya, and a stilt-fisherman are all part of the picture, all artwork being for sale.
The cafe’s co-founders Shazi Salim and Rumaiz Ramzy have created a relaxing nook to sip (and smoke) and lounge (and laze).
Ceylon Stories is at 9/6A 16th Lane, Marine Drive, Colombo 3.
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