IS THIS the most sustainable restaurant in Brighton?

Lucky Beach, on the seafront between the piers, has been shortlisted for a national award for its sustainability, facing competition from three other restaurants

The venue is focused on giving back to the hand that feeds them – staff raised £8,000 to build a school in a village in Rwanda where they source their coffee beans from.

They worked one day for nothing and donated all the restaurant’s takings to the development of the school.

Lucky Beach, which opened four years ago, is now up for the most sustainable restaurant in the UK, awarded by Delicious Magazine – formerly BBC Good Food.

Manager Flora McTeare said staff do their homework first when creating new dishes for their seasonal menus.

She said: “We change our menus seasonally depending on what’s in season at the time, including fish.

“The beef that we use is all organic and grass-fed, and we actually go out to the farms to visit the cows.

“We only use fish that is certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council.”

Staff decided they had to take cod off the menu due to its unsustainability, with manager Flora saying they do everything possible to maintain their reputation.

Despite using meat dishes, Lucky Beach aims to cater for all kinds of dietary requirements, including vegetarians and vegans.

Flora, 25, who joined the restaurant shortly after it opened, said: “We try and create a mixture of indulgence and wellness so that there’s a nice balance for our customers.

“We also serve a lot of vegetarian and vegan dishes.

“Ultimately, we want our customers to have an amazing experience, knowing that we’ve worried about the sustainability side of things so they don’t have to.”

She also said Lucky Beach aims to source as much of its produce from Sussex-based businesses as possible, too.

She said: “Our eggs are free-range organic and come from a farm just outside of Brighton, and the fish we use is all landed in Shoreham on small boats.”

Lucky Beach is the sister restaurant of Redroaster in St James’s Street.

The restaurant’s next project is to build a medical centre in the same Rwandan village as the school.

On October 7, staff will again give up a day’s wage to raise money for the medical centre to be built and again all the day’s takings will go towards the project.

The team has set a goal of £8,000 to get the medical centre up and running.

To vote for Lucky Beach as the most sustainable restaurant award in the Delicious Magazine awards, go to www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/stories/vote-for-your-favourite-sustainable-restaurant.