New café brings Sri Lankan-inspired sandwiches to Glasgow

Kofi Kade, pronounced Ko-fi-ka-day, opened up on Cathcart Road at the beginning of May combining the traditional flavours and spices of Sri Lankan cuisine within the familiar comfort of a sandwich.  

Rukshan Weeraratne, who has lived in Glasgow for almost three years, decided to open the cafe after growing tired of his nine-to-five and to expand his sauce business, Sausome, which he initially started up during lockdown.  

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Rukshan Weeraratne (Image: Mark F Gibson)

He explained: "The business started off as me making homemade chilli sauces back in London during Covid and when I moved up to Glasgow I wanted to restart the business.  

"At the beginning of this year, we started doing markets in Glasgow and then our production capacity became very tight because I was making everything at home and the number of markets we were doing and shops we were distributing to became bigger so I needed a kitchen to make the sauces in.  

"When I looked at renting a commercial kitchen, the prices were extortionate so the next best thing for us was to find a shop unit and convert it into a functioning cafe and use the kitchen area to produce the sauces so that’s where the initial idea came in."

(Image: Mark F Gibson)

With a constantly evolving menu, Kofi Kade sells a diverse range of sandwiches such as The Colombo with ceylon chicken, The Arugam Bay with aubergine mojju and The Kandy with steak and cheese.  

It also sells jars of Rukshan’s Sausome sauces including the berry blast chilli sauce and three-chilli sauce.  

Rukshan says he wanted to bring new flavours to Glasgow’s ever-evolving food scene as he felt Sri Lankan food has been underrepresented in Scotland, with a lot of people tending to think of the cuisine as “rice and curries”.  

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(Image: Mark F Gibson)

The 35-year-old said: "I did a lot of research in Glasgow and wanted to see what sort of food other businesses like mine do and how we could make it a bit different because there is a massive food scene that hasn’t been discovered.  

"I wanted to add value to it as opposed to just existing in it so thought how can we put two and two together and make it a bit more interesting and that’s how we came up with the initial idea of sandwiches with Sri Lankan-inspired flavours."

He continued: "With Sri Lankan food, it’s really hard to describe it until you taste it, smell it and look at it – it's a whole journey.  

"When you actually experience it, we hear from a lot of customers ‘I’ve not had a sandwich like this ever’ and I love hearing that because I wanted to create an experience for people who are paying good money to have a sandwich and I want them to feel satisfied."

(Image: Mark F Gibson)

After finding the Cathcart Road unit, Rukshan managed to turn it around within two weeks before opening.  

While starting the business was a "bit scary" he says he didn’t have time to think due to the quick turnaround.  

He said: "The first couple of weeks were a bit daunting, it was a bit slow, but the neighbourhood has been so amazing.  

"A lot of the neighbours came and supported us throughout the first couple of weeks and then social media did its thing.  

"We couldn’t have asked for a better start for us."

(Image: Mark F Gibson)

He added: "It feels like we are in the right place, Govanhill is a very community-driven area. 

"Starting as a new business and a person new to Glasgow I couldn’t have asked for a better area."

(Image: Mark F Gibson)

Rukshan grew up in London but has family from Sri Lanka and says his love of cooking comes from his mum and grandad.

He said: "They’re brilliant cooks, so growing up around them it was constantly having great food around you and everyone had to get involved in cooking even if you’re five/ six years old so that’s how my food influences started, especially from my grandad because he was an excellent cook.  

"So, most of it is inspired by his food and the three-chilli sauce is predominantly an homage to him because it reminds me of his cooking."

Kofi Kade is located at 636 Cathcart Road and is open Wednesday to Sunday from 10am to 4pm.