Gayan Pieris Opens Agnii Eatery Bar on Melbourne’s Chapel Street With Clay Hearths and a Late-Night Kottu Club

Gayan Pieris Opens Agnii Eatery Bar on Melbourne’s Chapel Street With Clay Hearths and a Late-Night Kottu Club

AI-generated illustration. The authentic photograph of Agnii Eatery Bar supplied to Time Out Melbourne by Agnii Eatery Bar is not reproduced here.

Chef Gayan Pieris is bringing a distinctly Sri Lankan approach to one of Melbourne’s best-known dining strips as Agnii Eatery Bar prepares to open at 105 Chapel Street, Windsor, on Saturday 24 October 2026. The new restaurant places charcoal cooking, traditional preservation methods and a late-night supper club at the centre of a contemporary dining concept shaped by Pieris’s Sri Lankan upbringing and his years working with Victorian produce.

For Sri Lankans living in Melbourne and across Australia, the opening marks another visible moment for the country’s food traditions in the city’s restaurant landscape. It is also a new professional chapter for Pieris, whose work at Many Little Bar and Dining in Red Hill helped establish him as a leading figure in contemporary Sri Lankan cuisine. eLanka covered Agnii in May, including a preview of the planned venue and a profile of Pieris; this report follows the story forward to the restaurant’s opening, its kitchen and the format being introduced on Chapel Street.

Time Out Melbourne, in a report by Winnie Stubbs published on 20 October, detailed the concept and opening menu. Agnii’s approach begins with the kussiya, the traditional Sri Lankan kitchen at the heart of the home, and centres on the use of fire, clay and techniques associated with cooking and preserving food.

AI-generated illustration of clay hearths and earthenware cooking; it is not a photograph of Agnii’s kitchen.

A kitchen organised around clay and fire

At the heart of the open kitchen are two custom-made clay hearths with distinct roles. The dara lipa is used for simmering food in earthenware pots, while the poranuwa is used for smoking, drying and roasting. Their presence makes the cooking infrastructure part of the restaurant’s identity, connecting the room to familiar elements of traditional Sri Lankan kitchens while supporting the restaurant’s charcoal-fired menu.

That focus on practical cooking traditions also informs the restaurant’s preservation work. The kitchen will make its own ferments and chutneys, as well as umbalakada, dried tuna used to add savoury depth to dishes. These methods, applied alongside locally sourced Victorian produce and seafood, form a meeting point between Sri Lankan culinary knowledge and the ingredients available in the region.

The opening menu is described as spanning Sri Lanka and showcasing locally sourced seafood. Among its highlights are roasted lamb served tartare-style with curry sauce and a crisp burnt-hopper tuile; a savoury interpretation of asmi, the traditional Sri Lankan New Year sweet, made with squid ink, coconut, rice flour and okra and served with swordfish; and Jaffna-style dosai with charcoal-cooked chicken.

These dishes draw on recognisable Sri Lankan ingredients and forms, while placing them in a contemporary restaurant setting. Their presentation at the opening is a reminder that heritage cooking can be expressed through considered technique and locally sourced ingredients without losing the cultural references that give it meaning. The article reports the menu as planned for opening; it does not constitute a review of the food.

Pieris will be joined in the kitchen by Asela Uduwara Arachchi, who previously trained under him at Many Little Bar and Dining. That connection brings experience from Pieris’s earlier kitchen into the new venue as the team begins work at a larger restaurant on Chapel Street.

AI-generated illustration inspired by an opening-menu highlight reported by Time Out Melbourne; not a photograph of Agnii’s dish.

Drinks that connect Sri Lankan and Victorian producers

The drinks programme follows the same Sri Lankan-meets-Victorian outlook as the food. It is set to include arrack, coconut and palmyrah toddy, alongside a lager brewed with Banks Brewery using Sri Lankan red rice flakes.

The wine list has been developed with Sam Coverdale, winemaker at Polperro, and is expected to include around 120 to 150 bottles, with Victorian producers forming the bulk. Together, the locally weighted wine selection and Sri Lankan-inspired drinks give the list a regional focus while retaining clear connections to the culinary traditions behind the restaurant.

From dinner service to late-night kotthu

Agnii is also planned as a venue that changes character later in the evening. On Friday and Saturday nights, the restaurant will transition into a late-night supper from 10.30pm to 1am, with vinyl-spinning DJs, drinks and generous plates of kotthu roti.

The Sri Lankan street food is made with chopped flatbread, and its place in a late-night format offers a different setting for a dish familiar to many Sri Lankan Australians. Rather than limiting the restaurant to a conventional dinner service, the supper-club element creates an additional way to bring people together around food and music.

AI-generated illustration of a late-night kotthu roti setting; it is not a photograph of Agnii or its supper club.

A Chapel Street venue designed around its hearth

The interiors have been designed by Craig Gorman of Mills Gorman, using terracotta tones, clay and natural materials, with the open hearth positioned as the room’s focal point. The restaurant is expected to seat around 100 guests across its dining room and terrace, while a private dining room will accommodate up to 40.

The design extends the culinary concept into the physical space: the clay and natural materials reflect the cooking methods at the centre of the menu, while the visible kitchen gives the hearths a prominent role in the restaurant’s layout. It is a considered approach to creating a modern venue without treating heritage details as decoration alone.

Agnii’s opening brings together several strands of Pieris’s work: Sri Lankan cooking traditions, experience with Victorian produce and a menu designed for a contemporary Melbourne setting. For Sri Lankan readers, seeing familiar ingredients, preservation practices and dishes represented on Chapel Street may carry particular significance, especially as the restaurant introduces them to a broader local audience.

Agnii Eatery Bar is scheduled to open on Saturday 24 October 2026 at 105 Chapel Street, Windsor, Melbourne. Further information and reservations are available through the Agnii website. Readers can also follow eLanka’s community news and stories.

This article was written based on the source https://www.timeout.com/melbourne/news/melbournes-chapel-street-is-scoring-a-new-sri-lankan-restaurant-and-late-night-supper-club-102026, kindly email us at info@eLanka.com.au if any information needs to be corrected.

eLanka Disclaimer

Content published on eLanka may be created by the eLanka team, submitted by contributors or third parties, reproduced or adapted from other sources with appropriate source acknowledgement, or provided as promotional/advertising material by our clients. While eLanka takes reasonable care in preparing and publishing content, we do not warrant its completeness or accuracy. Views expressed are those of the respective authors or contributors and do not necessarily represent the views of eLanka. Third-party contributors, content providers and advertisers are responsible for the accuracy of material they supply and for ensuring they hold the necessary rights and permissions for its publication. Advertising and promotional content should not be regarded as an endorsement by eLanka of any product, service or claim.