Playtrix Sports Bar and Grill is, unarguably, one of Colombo’s premier sports bars. However, it is not exclusively for sports enthusiasts, with its generally welcoming and notably casual atmosphere the pub has grown into something bigger than just your run-of-the-mill sports bar.
The pub and restaurant space is known for its vibrant social scene, with events running from Monday through Friday spilling over to the weekend. Monday with their open mic, Tuesday Quiz Night – which might be moving to Wednesday in the near future to be enjoyed together with the acoustic band playing on Wednesdays, Thursday is Salsa Night and on Friday, we have the famous Dylon Manuel formerly of The Slipping Chairs, with weekends dedicated exclusively for sports fans and live games.
However, this week Playtrix was making some waves for an interesting bit of marketing they initiated on Monday, 4 March 2022.
Of course this past Monday we saw massive protests happen all over the island, especially in various parts of Colombo, a sign of unrest that has been brewing for the past few months and Playtrix introduced a promotion offering free food for all those who participated in protests. The conditions read – “show us a picture of your placard/protesting and your meal is on the house, this Monday April 4 2022”. Unsurprisingly, the post caught a lot of attention and speaking to Playtrix Chairman Prasan Fernando, and also the initiator of the promotion, he said that they naturally did not expect things to catch on as they did.
Fernando noted that “it was a spur of the moment decision, the thinking was, let’s give the protestors something to eat” and so, they made the offer and opened up their menu with no limitations regardless of the price of the item, from 11 a.m. till the time they closed at around 3 a.m. the next morning.
He shared that what is important to mention is that many of the protestors insisted on paying and all others pretty much covered their costs as they purchased other items and so they were able to enjoy an above average Monday for sales.
Fernando noted that Playtrix Sports Bar and Grill was originally started by himself, and Vivek Sundaralingam together with the help of Roshan Parera, for the purposes of establishing a space similar to that of their student union back in their university days – somewhere you could walk in, without a dress code and feel right at home.
He shared that finally, now that they are at Colombo City Centre (CCC), with their giant HD TVs with digital transmissions, featuring pretty much every sports channel there is, they have succeeded in making it the ideal setting to go all out on a match day with friends and colleagues, which was always what they wanted.
Instagram: @playtrixpub