Ramesh Ranasinghe and Kamaya de Soysa are two young entrepreneurs who have teamed up for the ultimate business partnership – a cookie and coffee business. It may not sound as sophisticated as, say, inventing a search engine in your garage that will one day come to control nay own the internet, but it’s a start; and what a start it has been for this dynamic duo.
Ramesh and Kamaya, proprietors of ‘Quintessence: Coffee and Cookies by SpunSugar’ which opened for business last Wednesday, are passionate cooks who know everything there is to know about the subject. Quite apart from trying out various kinds of dishes in the kitchen, they have been cooking something in their heads for a while now… an idea; an idea to start something of their own, something different and unique.
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“We both really love to cook and we always wanted to do our own thing and let our creative juices flow and all that, but you can’t really do that when you’re working for someone else. So we discussed this and thought, why not give it a shot,” says Kamaya explaining the chief motivation behind their enterprise.
Quintessence has opened shop down Anagarika Dharmapala Mawatha, Colombo at a simple yet impressively attractive residence. It is cozy and inviting and has an air of freedom to it that you’d be hard pressed to find in some of Colombo’s best known cafes.
Parked right outside the place is an unusual looking cart. Upon closer inspection you’ll notice that it’s not a cart at all, but rather, a stall attached to a bicycle. This bizarre yet charming contraption is where Quintessence lived until its application for permanent residency was approved last week by our two heroes.
You might have spotted this bicycle with Ramesh at the handlebar, parked outside Ladies’ College over the past few months. He and Kamaya did their cookie and ice coffee business on it and they both tell me that the response was overwhelming. From what we hear, it was a roaring success.
“We wanted to meet people in a different way. The response was really good. Initially people were a bit skeptical. Their mindset was such that they took it in a ‘street vendor’ kind of way. We had to really take that mentality into account. However a lot of people came up to us and said it was brilliant. They wanted to know if we had our own shop,” says Ramesh.
The bicycle is currently enjoying a well earned break as its masters are a bit tied up with the new premises. But now that they’ve set up a permanent place of their own, what will become of the bicycle? Will they abandon it?
We hear a resounding ‘no’ from both Ramesh and Kamaya.
“I think the bicycle has added a lot of colour to this. It was like a meeting place for our regular customers. Some would come to pick up their kids, and gather round enjoying a cookie or two. It was fun, you know? When I stopped the bicycle kids were like “Where’s Cookie Uncle” gone?” Ramesh adds with a hearty chuckle.
Quintessence, Ramesh and Kamaya tell us, is not your average coffee shop cum hangout spot. Theirs is possibly the only place of its kind in town where the owners and cooks (who just happen to be the same two people, at least for the time being) engage in active conversation with the customers. They have built a rapport with their regular clientele from the days of the bicycle.
“It’s funny how people look at things. When we started off with the bicycle they realized it was something nice. I mean normally when you go to a street vendor you don’t have a conversation there. We on the other hand used to talk to our customers. We’d talk about politics, sports and all sorts of things. We’re really close to some of them now,” says Ramesh.
“It’s like going to a bar,” chips in Kamaya.
According to Kamaya, Quintessence does not stagnate, dishing out the same thing over and over again. These two are a clearly an innovative duo, and that shows when you have a look around the place. Displayed right next to all the cupcakes are handmade boxes and colourful cards that are used for decorative packaging purposes – all handled personally by Kamaya and Ramesh.
“We have this thing where we really want to do something different. We don’t want to go way out and do something crazy, but we like to take what people are comfortable with and do something different with that. We like to invent things, even when we cook, so we take what is already there and put our own twist on it,” Kamaya explains.
Another unique feature of Quintessence is that they don’t force their (absolutely delicious) food down your throat. If you’re in the mood, you can tell them what you have in mind and these two food experts will have it ready in no time. They have plenty of tricks up their sleeves.
“Most cafes in town are not places where you can just ask for what you want. You just have to take what’s there. Over here people come and tell us what they want. Someone once said they wanted Playboy Bunny cupcakes, and we got them that. We get a lot of requests from our regular customers: office crowd, school crowd… We’d get bored if we had to make the same thing all the time,” says Kamaya.
Quintessence has a page on Facebook which can be accessed at : http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cookies-Coffee/125590804034?ref=mf
Wrapping up, Ramesh and Kamaya tell us that they really enjoy doing what they do. In their own words, Quintessence is more like a personal space rather than a food outlet.
“We do it because we love it,” they say in unison. Be sure to check it out. And don’t forget to try the chocolate cupcake. It is to die for.
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