This restaurant won the Sustainability in Gastronomy Award as part of the Wiz 50 Best Restaurants 2024.
Since the inception of the awards, an additional prize—beyond the top 50—has been established to recognize a restaurant that meets most, if not all, sustainability criteria. With strong support from Vassos Iliades Ltd., a company whose vision aligns with a better planet, Wiz Guide has been presenting this "green" award for the third consecutive year.
Following Alley and The Royal Goat Farm, which won in 2022 and 2023, respectively, this year the award went to Beba. The restaurant walked away with two awards at the final ranking announcement of the Wiz 50 Best Restaurants, held on January 28, 2025, at the Hilton Hotel.
The Sustainability in Gastronomy Award was presented to the winners by the CEO of Vassos Iliades Ltd., Mr. Vassos Iliades.
Pictured: chef de cuisine Dimitris Kanelopoulos, restaurant manager Georgia Chrysi, Deputy Minister of Culture Dr. Vasiliki Kassianidou (who presented them with Award No.6), and co-owner Thomas Bekas.
At Beba, every night, after 11:00 PM, all orders for the next day are placed. In the morning, around 9:00 AM, the restaurant team, led by co-owner and chef Varnavas Elias, contacts all the fishermen to order the catch of the day, which arrives shortly afterward.
In the meantime, before the suppliers arrive, Restaurant Manager Georgia Chrysi or Varnavas visits the St. Anthony Municipal Market, where Mrs. Elli provides them with high-quality Cypriot produce, both seasonal and non-seasonal. These days, for example, they find artichokes, peas, fava beans, wild greens, beets, mallow, mushrooms, and more. Additionally, as the chef tells us, every Wednesday and Saturday, he personally visits the OXI Farmers' Market to source even more fruits, greens, and vegetables.
For a restaurant like Beba, which fills up for lunch and dinner, serving more than 300 guests daily, ordering the right quantities is crucial to ensuring that no food goes to waste. Both owners, Thomas and Varnavas, are highly conscious of food waste. If any food is left over, they skip preparing staff meals so that the surplus goes to the staff or to those in need.
Furthermore, 95% of the ingredients used in the kitchen are sourced from Cyprus, many from small producers, with a few select products imported from Greece. The restaurant also places great emphasis on Cypriot vineyards and native grape varieties, often recommending them to foreign guests to accompany their meals.
Beba is also committed to recycling, properly sorting glass, plastic, and paper, as well as used cooking oil.
Another noteworthy practice is the "nose-to-tail" approach to fish, ensuring that bones are utilized for soups, broths, and sauces. With all these efforts and new sustainability initiatives constantly being introduced, this beloved Nicosia restaurant—now celebrating its seventh anniversary and employing over 60 staff members—continues to significantly reduce its ecological footprint while enhancing its offerings.
What remains unchanged at Beba is the quality of the food and the soul infused into every dish. The simplicity of most recipes reveals the grandeur of Mediterranean and, by extension, Cypriot gastronomy. Varnavas perfectly captures his culinary philosophy with a personal anecdote: "The dish that truly resonated with me—one I hadn't cooked myself—was eggplant with tomato and garlic. I had it at my mother-in-law's house with a slice of bread, and I was left speechless. Just eggplant, tomato, and garlic."
