A minute with Lambros Schizas and Shane Stankard Co-owners of Topika Meze Bar in Nicosia

Where do you live?
We both live in Nicosia.

What did you have for breakfast?
Lambros: Two strong coffees and toast with jam.
Shane: Honey on toast and a large mug of coffee.

Describe your perfect day
Shane: Any day that involves being on or by the sea.
Lambros: Being on vacation. Lovely hotel breakfast followed by driving and exploring nature in the morning, then settling on a quiet sandy beach, sipping a cocktail whilst observing a beautiful sunset and finishing with a fantastic meal.

Best book ever read?
Lambros: I will give you a best poem instead: Ithaca by Constantinos Kavafis. Its meaning and essence resonated with me back at school and it still describes my outlook on life today.
Shane: Rough Music by Patrick Gale – it’s a beautifully written story with many resonances to my own life.

Best childhood memory?
Shane: My dog.
Lambros: Skipping school to go mushroom picking with my parents near Platres while it was snowing.

What is always in your fridge?
Lambros: Loads of jars of homemade chutneys and jam!
Shane: Leftovers covered in clingfilm.

What music are you listening to in the car at the moment?
Shane: Whatever Lambros has tuned the radio to.
Lambros: Our playlist from Topika because we simply can’t get enough of it during service.

What’s your spirit animal?
Lambros: A bee, as I’m always restless and buzzing around from one thing to the next.
Shane: Tortoise – I may not be the fastest but I get there in the end, and I sometimes like to withdraw into my shell 🙂

What are you most proud of?
Shane: Starting a restaurant business in Cyprus, in spite of the numerous and unfathomable bureaucratic hurdles, not to mention the ongoing challenges caused by the Covid pandemic.
Lambros: Shane leaving his home and secure job in London to come to Cyprus and work with me in realising my passion in setting up a restaurant.

What movie scene has really stayed with you?
Lambros: The final scenes from Brokeback Mountain. Watch it and you will understand.
Shane: The opening of the ark in Raiders of the Lost Ark – it gave me nightmares as a child.

If you could pick anyone at all (alive or dead) to go out for the evening with, who would it be?
Shane: Our friends from London, whom we’ve not been able to see for ages.
Lambros: What Shane said AND Adele.

If you could time travel when/where would you go?
Lambros: I would go back to 1994 and tell my younger self to ‘wake up’
Shane: 500 years in the future, to hopefully see that humanity does eventually sort itself out and hasn’t made a total mess of everything

What is your greatest fear?
Shane: Chronic illness
Lambros: Same as Shane!

What would you say to your 18-year-old self?
Lambros: Stop worrying about what other people think.
Shane: “It gets better”.

Name the one thing that would stop you dating someone
Shane: My partner finding out 😉
Lambros: Realising there is a lack of mental connection between us.

If the world is ending in 24 hours what would you do?
Lambros: I would try to stop it from ending somehow, knowing that Shane would be constantly telling me that it’s pointless.
Shane: Start drinking all the wine at our restaurant, and telling Lambros to calm down and enjoy our last drink too.