A Place To Chill In Style SUGAR
By Easwaran Rutnam
Call it a café, a restaurant or a bar, the new “in” place in Colombo is ‘Sugar’, located at the entrance to Crescat Boulevard.
One look and you might think you have entered a place meant for only the elite with a heavy purse. But on the contrary this place is open for anyone to unwind, chill and have some drinks and snacks or even a full meal. Sugar is owned and managed by MSD Productions, the owners of the popular night club ‘Silk’ and the ‘Lemon’ restaurant.
Launched just over a month ago, customers can choose from a fine dining area, a terrace or the verandah to have their meals or drinks.
“We have no restrictions on the attire people wear or the type of people who can visit Sugar. This is a place for everyone,” says Dinesh Wijesinghe, a Director at MSD Productions.
Sugar is open from 8 a.m. to midnight on weekdays and till 1 a.m. on weekends. An all day breakfast is served till 5 p.m. while the snack menu is from 11.30 a.m. until midnight.
Wijesinghe says that while the restaurant offers serious dining they do not want to make it too formal and would like the customer to feel at home.
A majority of their customers are those who visit the Crescat Boulevard to shop but Wijesinghe says a lot of foreigners who live in nearby hotels and apartments also visit Sugar.
“We hope to start a delivery service very soon to cater to the customers living close by,” he said.
Apart from the food, Sugar also offers over 130 varieties of wine of which 15 are served by the glass at a reasonable price. Wijesinghe says from the day the restaurant opened they have received a good response from the customers. He says on a normal day Sugar, which can cater to approximately 75 people, is nearly 80 percent occupied.
“People like us for our good food, drinks and reasonable prices. Basically it’s good value for money,” Wijesinghe said.
He also said that Sugar will be hosting private parties and theme parties where a customer can book the entire venue.
As for the future, Wijesinghe says his company hopes to make Sugar a popular brand name in Sri Lanka.