Yangdup Lama is
bartender, bar-owner,
entrepreneur, author and
mixologist
A bartender (also known as a barkeep, barman, barmaid, or a mixologist) is a person who formulates and serves alcoholic or soft drink beverages behind the bar, usually in a licensed establishment as well as in restaurants and nightclubs, but a ...
based in India and is known to be one of
India's finest
mixologists.
Lama has been featured by drinks international magazine in the Bar World 100 list of most influential people in the global beverage industry 2020, the first Indian to feature on this list. This follows the feat of having his bar Sidecar win a coveted spot as India's best bar in 2021 and the
Asia's 50 Best Bars awards 2020 and 2021 and the Joint Nikka Highest Climber Award 2021.
Early life
Lama is the second child born to mother Kamala Lama (Sherpa) and father Late Namgal Lama (Yonzon) in the village of
Gayabari
Gayabari (Nepali translation: The cowshed) is a tea garden village in the Kurseong CD block in the Kurseong subdivision of the Darjeeling District of West Bengal state, India.
Geography
Gayabari Tea Garden village is administrated by Sarpanc ...
near Kurseong in the hill district of
Darjeeling in the
North Eastern
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
part of India. He completed Secondary School Certification (Class 10th) from
Victoria Boys’ School, Kuseong and Senior School Certification (Class 12th) from Army Public School Bengdubi.
Lama moved to
Kolkata in 1992 to study
Hotel Management
''Hotel Management'' magazine is a trade publication produced by Questex, LLC.
History and profile
The magazine ''Hotel Management'' was established in New York in 1922 by Ahrens Publishers. It absorbed or merged with various other hotel managem ...
after completion of which he moved to
Delhi in 1995.
Career
Sidecar
Lama is the co-owner of India's best cocktail bar Sidecar (Lama's second bar) in Greater Kailash, New Delhi in 2018. Sidecar continues to grow in prominence on the Asian cocktail map and in 2021is named the joint Nikka Highest Climber after rising twenty-four places in the list of Asia's 50 Best Bars since 2020, number 16 in Asia and 4th in world.
In 2020 the
William Reed Group ranked Sidecar amongst the top 50 bars in Asia making it the only bar in India to feature in the list.
Cocktails & Dreams/Thirsty Three Hospitality
After serving in Hyatt for four and a half years, Yangdup founded a mobile bar tending service company called ''Cocktails & Dreams'' and in September 2003, ''Cocktails & Dreams/Thirsty Three Hospitality'' – a bar service and beverage consultancy company. Later he opened a commercial bar called ''Cocktails & Dreams, Speakeasy'' in
Gurugram (Gurgaun) and also a bar training and beverage management school by the name ''Cocktail and Dreams Beverage Studio'' in Delhi.
Polo Lounge, Hyatt Regency Delhi
Lama joined the
Hyatt Regency Delhi as a food and beverage server in the year 1995 where he took to bar tending and worked at the prestigious Polo Lounge bar in the hotel.
Awards and accolades
* Sidecar- The Best Bar in India 2021
*Sidecar 2021- Joint Nikka Highest Climber after rising 24 places in the list of Asia's 50 Best Bars since 2020.
*SIdecar- Asia's 50 Best Bars 2020
* Drinks International Magazine- 2020 list: 100 most influential people in the beverage industry globally
* Indian Bartender of the Year 1999
*The Asia-Pacific 30 under 30 Award 1997.
*India attaché by
Tales of the Cocktail New Orleans for the years 2017–18
*
American Whiskey Ambassador India 2017 by
Distilled Spirits Council of United States.(DISCUS)
Books
Cocktails & Dreams: The Ultimate Indian Cocktail Book
References
External links
Cocktails and Dreams Speakeasy official websiteCocktails and Dreams bar tending school official websiteYangdup Lama TEDx talkMetro News, Zee NewsYangdup Lama, CNBC Young TurksTop Chef Awards 2015 Season 2Master Yangdup Lama speech at Mixology & Flair Camp 2015 - FlairologyYangdup lama in Hyderebad 2007Indian Food Entrepreneur - Passion for Food - Yangdup Lama - Food Moments - Food first
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lama, Yangdup
Bartenders
20th-century Indian people
21st-century Indian people
People from Darjeeling district
Indian businesspeople
Bartending
Catering and food service companies of India
Sherpa people