Yangdup Lama doesn’t want you to call him a mixologist. It’s too fancy a term for him, the only Indian to have featured in the 2020 list of Drinks International’s Bar World 100 list of most influential people.
“I call myself a bartender because I have been in this profession for 25 years, and I like to be behind the bar,” he says.
Lama juggles many roles – trainer, consultant and cocktail judge. But his favourite role is what catapulted him into international fame – a bartender. He now co-owns Cocktails and Dreams, Speakeasy in Gurgaon and Sidecar in Delhi’s Greater Kailash 2.
What’s the difference between a mixologist and a bartender, I ask him. He smiles and says, “Mixologist is a more modern term. People who have created a couple of cocktails that are unique to them, like to refer to themselves as mixologists. But there is no difference between a mixologist and a bartender.”
Lama’s foray into the profession was accidental. Growing up in Darjeeling, he wanted to be a sportsman, but eventually realised that it would not work out. Whether you refer to him as a mixologist or a bartender, he is the undisputed guru in this profession. From being considered a failure for his career choice to adorning lists across the world, Lama is a brand of his own.
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“The bar is the hero”
Lama’s idea of a good bar is simple – the guest is the star and the bartender the medium that makes them feel so.
Author and columnist Vir Sanghvi says Lama has avoided the temptation to turn his bar into a place where the lights are low and the music loud. “Sidecar is not trendy or glamorous. It is classic and timeless with India’s best cocktails,” Sanghvi says. Lama is clear about what he wants, and that is probably what has helped him reign supreme in the industry for so many years.
Bartending is not simply mixing cocktails, juggling shakers, and creating flames. It is where the ‘magic’, as Lama refers to it, happens. A good bar keeps bringing back people.
India is not a cocktail-drinking country, but it is evolving, and so is bartending and the demand for good bars and bartenders, says Lama.
How to become India’s best
“People skills are important, do you enjoy nice conversations, do you like to be surrounded by people while you make a cocktail. If not, this is probably not the profession for you,” says Lama.
For starters, Lama’s foray into bartending was accidental. He wanted to be an athlete when studying at Victoria Boys’ School, in Kurseong, West Bengal. But once he passed his board exams, Lama decided to opt for a hotel management course.
He worked with Hyatt for four-and-a-half years after that. And it was during his sojourn with Hyatt that he approached the bartender at the hotel, and a two-hour-long conversation convinced him to learn the art and science of bartending.
Lama’s decision to become a professional bartender was not exactly considered a sound professional choice, even within the food and beverage industry.
“When I left Hyatt to become a professional bartender, my own manager was not very supportive. He said there is nothing called a professional bartender in India,” he says.
So, Lama became the first one to try being one. He competed in the Old Monk Bartender of the Year contest in 1996, the first-ever such event in India. Lama won. Soon, most bars wanted him.
Even though his family was always supportive, they did not really understand what Lama did. It was this award that helped him explain his job, and make them proud.
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25 years in the business
India is yet to wholly embrace the idea of centering a bar around the skills of a single bartender, like is the case with chefs, Lama knows bartenders create the best bars.
“Bartending is about the knowledge of alcohol, technique, and how creative you are,” says Lama.
He also runs a school in Vasant Kunj called ‘Cocktail and Dreams’ that offers a three-month certificate course in bartending. The intake of students has grown almost three times since 2002, when parents would often send their children to be a bartender because they were not good at academics or anything else really. But the scenario is definitely changing, says Lama. People take up courses due to their interest, and because they want to be professional bartenders.
Rohan Jelkie, beverage educator and former student of Lama, did a course in his school in 2005.
“Back then, everyone suggested Yangdup Lama in Delhi. I have benefited from learning from someone who has been trained by the best in the world, and his connections,” Jelkie says.
Rohan Matmary, who looks after the beverage programme of Lama’s company, the bartending school and the YouTube channel Three Bar Stools, is also a reputed bartender and is all praises for Lama – the bartender and the teacher.
“Dream big, but do not get carried away,” says Lama, when asked what would be his advice to aspiring bartenders. Then he shows us how to make a mean Manhattan.
(Edited by Neera Majumdar)