This beloved Oakland Sri Lankan cafe is about to close after 13 years - San Francisco Chronicle

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After 13 years, a downtown Oakland cafe founded and lovingly operated by a Sri Lankan immigrant is closing.

Anula’s Cafe on Franklin Street is another victim of the times, said owner and cook Anula Edirisinghe. The rent on her nearby kitchen is rising, the work-from-home trend has depleted her customer base and it just doesn’t make financial sense to stay open.

“I have a tiny, tiny cafe but I make hot food,” she told The Chronicle. “But business is slow.”

Anula’s serves a mix of hot dishes, including Jamaican and Sri Lankan specialties: curry chicken, jerk chicken, chicken and vegetable roti, lamb curry and lamprais, a traditional Sri Lankan dish of various meats, vegetables and rice wrapped in a banana leaf. She also serves breakfast, coffee, smoothies and homemade cakes that vary daily.

Edirisinghe will miss the cooking, she said, but also the customers, who she prefers to consider part of her family.

“It’s not easy for me,” she said of the decision to close. “This is like my life, I love to cook, I love the people. I talk to almost everybody. I get them fresh food. I make them smile in the face.”

Anula Edirisinghe waits on customers in her final days operating her downtown Oakland cafe

Michael Cabanatuan/The Chronicle

Around noon on Tuesday, a small line formed out the door, some drawn by reports of her imminent closure, others by the jerk chicken. They said they’ll miss the food — and Anula.

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“This place is very special — a single mom who started her own cafe and worked very hard,” said Sylvia Keita, who used to work in the area and has been a customer from the start. “ Everyone loves her. They come to see her, not just for the food.”

Edirisinghe came to Oakland after leaving Sri Lanka as a single mother. After brief stops in Italy, then Pennsylvania, she moved to Oakland, where she operated a flower shop downtown for 15 years before opening the cafe, something she had saved for, a couple of blocks away.

Since 2009, she’s been cooking daily specials plus regular fare in a kitchen down the street in the basement of the Ramada hotel, starting at 4:30 a.m. and finishing about 10 a.m. then taking the food to the cafe, where it’s kept hot and served up. The cafe is tiny — about 10 feet wide and 20 feet long with a counter, refrigerator and three tables wedged inside. It’s painted pumpkin orange with a pair of palm frond fans hanging from the ceiling.

Edirisinghe plans to take some time off after closing the cafe, then wants to find another kitchen and resume catering, she said.

“Oh, no, I can’t stop cooking,” she said to a customer who asked if she were hanging up her apron for good.

The last day for Anula’s Cafe is Thursday. The cafe, at 1319 Franklin St., is open from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. weekdays.

Michael Cabanatuan (he/him) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan

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This beloved Oakland Sri Lankan cafe is about to close after 13 years - San Francisco Chronicle
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