What's On Cyprus

I was delighted to be invited to catch Bill and Ems, aka Dejavu, playing live at Lithos Bar & Grill in Larnaca.  On that night they were joined by Andreas, their drummer, and as a trio, they go by the name 'Strings Attached'  I really loved this gig so much, especially their covers of Fever, and Hotel California, so I grabbed the chance to ask Bill if we could get together for a chat.

What started as a weekend gig, grew into a week long party, a week long pure rock festival, live bands on a big stage, and often in intimate venues, where you get a chance to grab a drink and socialise with like minded mates you've not seen since the last festival, as well as the band members who hang around the venues, along with the thousands of rock fans that started to follow Cyprus Rocks Festival over ten years ago ...

Wanax Beach Bar was one of the main reasons I wanted to catch up with Genia was to find out more about 'Wanax', their newly opened Beach Bar, come Tapas Beach Bar that I'm hearing is the in-place to be on the west coast, fast becoming one of the popular beach bars.  Opening every day as a beach bar, with an international a'la carte menu 'til 6 pm.  Then on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, it's a fabulous beach bar by day serving signature cocktails, and by night, from 7 pm 'til late it transforms into Wanax Mediterranean Tapas Bar, with a different concept, the themed specialty is Tapas, accompanied by a little live Salsa music and don't miss their weekly Sunday Latin Beach Parties

Authentically Cuban ... It's a great place to go for a meal of traditional and authentic Cuban cuisine, or grab a cocktail and enjoy dancing the night away to great music from Afro Cuban style to modern day Latin hits !

Times have changed as far as the fascia goes, but for the past 28 years, the service is still exemplary and the cuisine is as traditional as it gets.  It's a family-run restaurant, from Luigi's warm welcome to the homemade Cypriot specialties using mum's secret recipes and the lovely touch of complimentary seasonal fruit, grown in dad's orchard, that they'll bring to your table for afters.

I asked why their beers are so good;  Taras explained, "The biggest difference of Craft Beer is it has more flavour and taste, mainly because it's not filtered or pasteurised, making it a much richer flavour.  Craft Beer is like a finger print because we never brew our beer in a bad mood, that's how we are here at Octo and we hope you are just like us" …

My initial interest was to find out about their gins, Aris explained, "it's what originally brought us back to Cyprus, 'to create a quality craft gin'.  Our initial inspiration was the aroma of The Troodos Mountains after a long dry summer when it first rains and we wanted to capture exactly that and put it in a bottle and we called it Aoratas Dry Gin which in fact last year won a gold medal. 

This is as traditional an English pub as you’ll find in Cyprus.  It’s on a corner for starters, with wooden decking and comfy seating outside on the shaded, decked, beer terrace, inside its cosy, with lots of dark wooden beams, bar stools, pictures and railway memorabilia and a gorgeous open fire for the winter, to warm your brandy on … with regular eat-in clients and a successful entertainment programme ...

truly international, there's bound to be something you'll like ...

It has a great reputation and is well known for it's hospitality, the food is tasty, the cocktails delicious, the atmosphere chilled, the staff friendly and welcoming, the music fab ... all this mixed together makes for the perfect place to go whether it be for lunch, dinner or just drinks !