Community Highlights: Meet Gavin & Shay Parys of Ceylon Hut

Today we’d like to introduce you to Gavin & Shay Parys.

Gavin & Shay, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Having lived in Orlando for over 20 years, my wife, Shay and I always enjoyed trying different cuisines. We are both originally from the Island of Sri Lanka and we saw that there was no establishment offering any Sri Lankan cuisine. This gave us the boost and encouragement we needed to venture into the food scene. 

We decided to start up a Sri Lankan Food Truck here in Orlando so we could let our fellow community experience and taste what our food was all about! Sri Lanka is a small island rich in tea, coconut and spices. Sri Lankans are well known for their hospitality, their love for cooking as well as eating! Ceylon Hut was established in December of 2017 where we started out as a pop-up. We did Farmers Markets, various events around Central Florida and even entered the World Food Festival in 2018. The community started to get more and more excited and enjoyed the diverse flavors of Sri Lankan cooking. We gradually started to build a customer base and moved around Central Florida, cooking our way through to people’s hearts. We have been doing so ever since, and in March 0f 2019, we purchased our Food Truck. 

Sri Lankan food is relatively new to Floridians, and we have been introducing our Island flavors one at a time. One of the things we are most proud of is our amazing customers. When the pandemic hit, our loyal Ceylon Hut Family stood with us every step of the way and made it possible for us to sustain through this difficult time. We are so grateful to them. Their continuous support has enabled us to keep going forward, and we intend to do so. We have a long way ahead of us, and our vision is to be a staple in this wonderful community in Orlando.

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Not at all! One of our biggest challenges was the fact that people did not know about Sri Lanka and its food. Two of the most common questions we get asked are ‘Where is Sri Lanka located? and ‘What does the food taste like?”. In the past, the way we always handled this was to give out samples. Tasting the food was always a game changer to several of our customers as it appealed to their senses and they liked what they were tasting! 

As a family with two young boys, it has been challenging to balance work and family. Food truck life as they say! Being in the food industry and the only two people working in our own business, the work is intense, and the hours are long. We always work around our kids’ schedules and prioritize family time. It is a great big balancing game, but we love it. 

As you know, we’re big fans of Ceylon Hut. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about the brand?
We are a Food Truck serving Sri Lankan street food and more. We are also the only food establishment representing Sri Lankan food in the State of Florida. Our business not only serves food, but we strive to share/educate our fellow community about Sri Lanka and its diverse heritage. We also offer catering services for family get-togethers, corporate events etc. as well as we offer shipping of Sri Lankan food within the State of Florida.

Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
To us, happiness means when someone tells us that they enjoyed their meal and that their experience was phenomenal. This feeling is indescribable. Shay and I give it our all and we absolutely love what we do. Every single dish we cook is always prepared with so much love and care and we want our food to reflect just that.

Contact Info:

• Email: theceylonhut@gmail.com
• Instagram: @theceylonhut
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/ceylonhut

Image Credits
@happytoeathere