The Foundation — Continued
A love letter to the island.
— The Ceylon Stories family at the Marine Drive opening, January 2026.
Ceylon Stories opened its doors on the 9th of January, 2026. Founded by Shazi Salim and Rumaiz Ramzy, the gallery café on Marine Drive is a love letter to the island — a small, deliberate room that holds Sri Lankan craft, premium Ceylon tea, and rotating local art.
What follows is a closer look at the room, the tea, and the artists who pass through it.
The Founders
Shazi Salim & Rumaiz Ramzy
Shazi & Rumaiz.
The two founders opened Ceylon Stories on the 9th of January, 2026 — a quiet beginning, by design. The space they took on had previously been The Central Perk, a familiar room on Marine Drive that they slowly, deliberately, made their own.
The renovation was patient. Every chair, every shelf, every cup chosen with intention. What emerged is small and slow, by design — a room that resists the city’s instinct to rush.
A room where slowness is the point.
The Tea Programme
A guided Dilmah tasting at Ceylon Stories
Sri Lanka’s most respected blend.
Ceylon Stories is an authorised Dilmah dealer, offering guided tea tastings and a refined educational tea experience that places Ceylon’s most respected blend at the centre of the room.
The programme runs alongside the kitchen and bar — food, brews, and slow hours that ask you to stay a little longer.
→Inside the Dilmah RoomNow Showing
Adithi Dinethya Fernando
Until 28 February · The First Feature
Every month, a new artist takes the walls. Select paintings are available for purchase, allowing patrons to support Sri Lankan creatives directly.
Adithi Dinethya Fernando is the inaugural feature — on view through the end of February, 2026.
“Slowness is not a deficiency. It is the entire point.”
Address
9/6A, 16th Lane
Marine Drive, Kolpetty
Colombo 03, LK
Hours
Daily — 09:00 till late.
Reservations encouraged.
Contact
+94 (77) 000 0000
hello@ceylonstories.lk