Name – Ram Yadav
Instagram – local_bartrender
Favorite cocktail – A well-made Daiquiri, for sure.
Favorite non-alcoholic drink – Iced coffee. With milk, an Americano; without sugar, black and cold.
Industry experience – 12 years.
From India to the World
Over 12 years in hospitality, Ram Yadav has worked across India, Macau and Hong Kong, three markets that have given him very different perspectives on hospitality. The biggest lesson, he says, is that hospitality itself is universal, even if the way people experience it is not.
India taught him warmth and the importance of personal hospitality, where people remember names and relationships often matter as much as the drink. Macau was a very different experience, with its constantly changing mix of cultures and international clientele. It taught him to quickly understand different preferences and expectations. Hong Kong, meanwhile, taught him consistency. Speed, precision and accuracy are critical, with every member of the team expected to work at the same level.
Despite the differences, Ram found the people behind hospitality remarkably similar across all three markets. Passion, curiosity and a desire to grow professionally are common threads. Building a strong team, he believes, ultimately comes down to putting the right person in the right role.
These markets have also shaped his approach to bartending. India remains his foundation, where hospitality tends to be deeply personal. In Macau, remembering guest preferences becomes more challenging because the clientele is constantly changing. Hong Kong brings another level of expectation: guests want something new, but technique and consistency must remain world-class.
For Ram, the challenge is finding the fine line between innovation and precision, where every detail matters.
Having worked across both hotel and standalone bars, Ram sees a fundamental difference in the relationship they create with guests. At a standalone bar, people generally arrive to enjoy their drinks and leave. A hotel bar offers a longer journey.
A guest may come in for a drink one evening, return the next with friends and spend several days at the hotel. That gives the bartender multiple opportunities to understand their preferences and make the experience memorable throughout their stay, rather than simply delivering one good cocktail.
That thinking extends to beverage programmes as well. For Ram, a successful menu has to balance creativity, identity and commercial discipline. Creativity may attract attention, but the drink still has to taste good. “Drink needs to taste delicious,” he says. The menu should also be clear and connected to the identity of the bar, while costing, margins and speed of service need to work operationally. A creative menu that cannot be executed consistently during a busy service is ultimately not a successful beverage programme.
Building the Next Generation
Ram believes a great bartender needs to be adaptable and constantly open to learning. His own formula is simple: learn the craft, understand the guest, respect the team and understand the business.
For senior professionals, however, the responsibility goes beyond personal skill. Knowledge needs to be shared, allowing the people around them to eventually become leaders themselves. A strong team is one that continues to grow.
That philosophy informs his advice to young Indian bartenders looking at international careers: stay curious, keep learning and build a community. The international bar industry runs heavily on relationships and collaboration, and social media and global events have made those connections more accessible. Exposure to different bartenders and perspectives can expand both creativity and professional horizons.
Putting India on the Global Bar Map
Ram’s own ambitions now extend beyond remaining behind the bar. “Once a bartender, always a bartender,” he says, but eventually he wants to become a bar operator, training bartenders, developing future leaders and helping put India firmly on the global bar map.
At the centre of that ambition is community. India’s bar scene has changed considerably in recent years, with Indian establishments gaining increasing international recognition. Yet Ram believes there is still a gap between the talent that exists in the country and the exposure and collaborations available to it. Many emerging bars do not have the resources or access to participate in international collaborations and activations.
He sees an opportunity to become a bridge helping businesses and bartenders understand the right path, make the right connections and build their presence without turning every collaboration into a purely commercial proposition.
He also sees enormous potential beyond India’s established metropolitan centres. Cities such as Jaipur and Hyderabad are already developing rapidly, while Tier II markets are beginning to build their own hospitality identities. There is no reason, he believes, why that talent should remain outside the global conversation.
Ultimately, Ram’s ambition is to build a stronger community around Indian bartending – one that creates more leaders, encourages collaboration and gives emerging talent the opportunity to be seen.
Perhaps his philosophy is best captured in the advice he gives his teams: “A great cocktail just brings the guest to the bar, but great hospitality allows them to come back again and again.”
