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by Shirajiv Sirimane

In an era where food is brought to the doorstep by catering companies over a mere telephone call, one company for over a century has not changed their traditions nor the way they serve the public.

"We do not believe in home delivery service but concentrate only on home catering and retail business," says the General Manager Catering of Cyril Rodrigo Restaurants Ltd, Vohara de Silva.

Sri Lanka is speculated to have more Chinese restaurants than China and this is because the food industry is booming with take away outlets which are found in every nick and corner.

"The patterns of the food industry have changed and today there are more people dining out.

The time people take to dine during the day has reduced since every person is busy and moving fast.

Today people want to eat something in a hurry or just take a bite while going for work," he said.

He said that this was the reason for small timers to invade the food market.

"But without a chain of restaurants we have never compromised quality and the public knows this." He said that this was their success to survive for over a century even though modern food products such as Chinese, KFC, Pizza, McDonalds, and instant meals have invaded the market.

Pagoda introduced many firsts to Sri Lanka, which included the Chinese Roll, Pineapple Gateaux, cheesecake and Lamprais.

"Our range of cakes even today are world famous and each time when we have a catering order from either the President's House, Temple Trees or from any client the cake was one item which was always on top of the menu."

A cake box of Pagoda Restaurant.

In the early 1900 a lamprais which is now being sold at Rs. 130 was sold at 25 cents and a cup of ice cream and a fruit drink cost only 25 cents each.

Pagoda may be the only Sri Lankan catering company, which has never changed its management from among its Sri Lankan family and has never diversified into other areas of business. "This is because we want to concentrate on the food industry."

The beginning of the company dates back to 1884 when the 'Ceylon Tea Kiosk' was set up near the Colombo Port to provide tea for tourists and port employees by some British planters.

Later this Kiosk was relocated to York Street and was renamed Pagoda Tea Room and for the first time it introduced pastries to Sri Lanka.

Soon after the First World War the four planters who were instrumental in establishing the Tea Room sold part of its shares to Mudaliyar Thomas Rodrigo.

This was a time when Fort was thriving with activity and most of the top businessmen, civil servants, bankers and even journalists used the tea room to have their meals and tables were reserved for different kinds of clientele.

Women shoppers too would visit the shop to refresh themselves after a hectic day of shopping and mostly buy a ham sandwich and an Orange Juice which cost under 50 cents.

Unlike today the Pagoda tearoom also served dinner when the property was refurbished and shifted to Chatham Street.

The business was given in charge to the young Cyril Thomas Rodrigo who was one of his eight children who transformed the company to what it is today.

Together with his wife Mallika who was an expert in culinary art they introduced the Cheesecake (with no cheese) to the world during this period and a 100% Sri Lankan menu.

During the Second World War all the shares of the foreigners were sold to the Rodrigo family. Rodrigo also made another major investment by buying the Green Cabin, which was run by Mrs. De Vos, a Dutch woman, since 1936. The two restaurants had a good business and did not close even after the bombing of Colombo.

Cyril Thomas's second son Devaka joined the business in 1951 and took over the Pagoda Tea room while his daughter Devika was in charge of Green Cabin since 1956. Today all the offspring of Cyril Thomas are on the director board. Early 1990 was a good year for the company where they had a turnover of Rs. 51.7 million.

Recently the company moved their head office and the kitchen to Pepiliyana.

The company also opened outlets at Nugegoda, Nawala and Mount Lavinia and now has a staff of over 150.

A new Chef Ruwan Withana joined the company last year after serving nearly 20 years in USA, Germany and some Colombo five star hotels .

"We are still running at a profit since the food industry is a growing industry simply because people never stop eating."

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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