Famous Shanthi Vihar restaurant in Colombo closes

Shanthi Vihar, among the oldest South Indian restaurants in Colombo serving spicy thosais, wadais and other delicacies, closed its shutters on New Year’s Eve, discontinuing the services of 35 workers without notice, a union representing the workers said.

“They were asked to quit last night,” Leon Joseph, a spokesman for the Progress Union said on Friday. The restaurant is among the oldest of a new generation of South Indian eateries that emerged in the late 1970s-early 1980s and is a very popular place at the Thummulla junction on Reid Avenue. Sources close to the owner of the premises said the tenant had been asked to quit by December 31 in line with a court order over non-payment of rent and other issues and sufficient time had been given to settle the workers. The restaurant is due to open under a new management.