What's On Cyprus

A place with a cool atmosphere, to enjoy good food, but with big portions, served fresh from the Charcoal Grill, hosting regular events and of course showing all the live sports on the 4 big screens.  The decor traditional taverna style, inside it's spacious, comfy, a lovely log burner for the chilly winter evenings and outside a covered courtyard for the balmy summer nights ... oh I'm loving the new extended bar with RGB lights, looks well cool ...

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" …

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.

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. 

As one of their clientele once said ''Scarabeo is a home to the artists, the musicians, the fans, the misfits, the creative ones, the alcoholics, the sane and insane ones" ... sounds like a good night to me !

Specialising in sound, light, and automation, without doubt Andreas' expertise is evident, with many top bars and clubs trusting in his knowledge and experience, to be honest, I've never met anyone who knows audio better than this guy, and listened with interest as he critiqued the sound and light system at Ministry of Sound in London on our visit a few years back, ask him to tell you about it 😉 

Pretty much every Friday and definitely every Saturday, and the day before a bank holiday they host live Rock gigs with big name international bands and the very best local Greek and English Rock Bands ... they even squeeze in a little Rhythm and Blues, Indie, Folk, and the occasional Reggae and Disco night too ... I've even caught them doing The Candy up on stage ... adding a bit of live comedy these days ... You'll love it here !

It's been awhile since I strolled around this boulevard of shoe shops, bag shops, souvenirs  galore, Jewellers, leather shops and more shoe shops, whilst down cobbled alleys you'll find quaint cafes and traditional restaurants and kebab taverns and a few Indie boutiques and loads of international labels ...

Coming up to their first anniversary in Cyprus I asked Nicola to tell me about the Menu ... Nicola said; "We sort of split it into three cuisines, Fresh Fish, Fresh Sushi, and Vegan Platters & Snacks ... Our head chef has been with us since day one, his qualifications and previous experience in Cyprus, the very best Sushi eateries, including Sushi La and Wagamama" ... I was suitably impressed!

It's classy, chic and unique, it's spacious, the designer obviously minimalistic with a touch of finesse.  Outside there's a large terrace, partly covered, with comfy bench sofas and seats, huge umbrellas, dropping down to lush gardens, with mature trees creating the shade, overlooking the sea, with gorgeous architectural lighting by night ... inside its all stone pillars and wood with classy finishing, stylish lighting, high ceilings, cool touches and condiments to compliment, all creating an ambience that puts them up high in my favourite eaterie rankings.