- Harpo Gooneratne and the restaurant collective marks a milestone
Celebrating 15 years of wood-fired pizza, Harpo’s Pizza has managed to capture the Italian food market like no other before them in Sri Lanka. Marking 42 years in the hospitality and entertainment industry is Harpo’s Cafés and Restaurants Founder/Chief Executive Officer Harpo Gooneratne, whose brainchildren are the pioneers of traditional pizza in Sri Lanka.
Brunch caught up with Gooneratne for a chat on the restaurant chain’s inception, operation during a crisis, and what pizza enthusiasts can expect in the future.
Gooneratne stated that an advantage they had when starting out was that they focused on serving wood-fired, fresh, traditional pizzas, as they weren’t very popular back in the day. Harpo’s Pizza was thus Sri Lanka’s first wood-fired homegrown pizza brand.
Harpo’s Pizza and Pasta, a subsidiary of the Harpo’s Group of restaurants, was opened in 2005 at the iconic Bayleaf Italian Restaurant in Colombo 7. The brand, which had a humble start as Colombo’s first homegrown, authentic, thin-crust wood-fired pizza maker, has grown significantly over the years and offers its customers a range of 30 toppings.
Since its inception, Harpo’s Pizza and Pasta has become a household name in Colombo for its premium-quality gourmet Italian pizzas and pastas. Over the years, Gooneratne took it upon himself to expand and innovate their menus to better relate to their customers.
In addition to the nine-inch and 12-inch pizzas that are usually offered, they also feature a “gigantic” 19-inch pizza and the “square” 22-inch pizza, which revolutionised the pizza game in Sri Lanka when it was first released, as it was the first square-shaped pizza served by a local restaurant.
Harpo’s Pizza also introduced Sri Lanka’s first wood-fired pizza truck, dubbed the “Pizza Truck”, along with a Pasta Cart; an ideal match if you’re looking for a fun, one-of-a-kind catering option. Recently, in attempts to spread its wings further, Harpo’s Pizza steadily made its way to the retail industry with their newest products, pasta packs, and homemade sauces.
Although both Gooneratne and his restaurant collective are marking a huge milestone in the industry, he noted that the industry has been taking hit after hit since the Easter attacks in 2019, and restaurateurs have not had time to get their heads above water since.
“The whole hospitality industry is having a very tough time – the fuel and gas crisis is worsening the situation,” he stated, adding that he does not see an immediate solution. The fuel crisis means customers cannot make their way to the restaurants, delivery partners cannot do their jobs, and their staff too, are unable to report to work. In order to combat the situation, Gooneratne told us they have resorted to asking their staff to reside in-house as a way to ensure the restaurants keep running.
Ever conscious of his staff and their wellbeing, he pointed out that they too are under mental duress. “Today, we can say we are celebrating so many years, but without our staff, we wouldn’t be celebrating anything! At the end of the day, we must be thankful to our staff since they are the backbone of our vision.”
At the moment, they have over 150 employees, and Gooneratne told us that during a meeting with them, he had to maintain a positive outlook on the situation, although he does not see much hope.
“If I’m not positive, then it will obviously affect their morale, so I had to tell them I’m confident we can come out of this funk soon,” he told us, affirming that the restaurant collective will continue to maintain their standards and offer quality food and service even to the few customers that do have the privilege of visiting their restaurants.
When asked what they’ll be doing in order to mark this milestone, he informed us that they have a few ongoing promotions, but were unable to host any major event, given the unprecedented times we are living through. “At the end of the day, we just have to keep on going, look for a silver lining and pray that we will see an end to this disparaging situation soon.”
