Sara Ramadan
As Head Bartender at Omnia Bistro & Bar, American native Sara Ramadan is the heart and
soul of the beautiful Omnia Bar. Ramadan’s bartending has taken her across the world,
from her native California to Miami, Florida, to San Juan in Nicaragua before landing in
Melbourne in 2018, where she has been the head bartender at the awarded South Yarra
restaurant since the middle of 2021.
Ramadan works closely with the entire Omnia team, in particular, Culinary Director of LK
Hospitality, Stephen Nairn, who Ramadan considers to be one of her hospitality heroes, she
explains, “He runs two amazing, award-winning venues and has instilled his work ethic in me and trained some of the greatest and most talented people I’ve met in the industry.”
Under Nairn’s leadership, Ramadan has flourished in her head bartender role, truly making
it her own, “I love the trust I have been given from those I look up to in my workplace to run
the bar, and use my creative side to create delicious drinks!”
As head bartender, Ramadan loves to show off her skills with her incredible use of flavours.
For her, a cocktail is all about the flavour and she particularly loves using herbs in her
drinks, including mint, rosemary, thyme and even coriander.
Although Ramadan loves to pour her patrons any style on the rocks, her speciality – the
margarita – takes inspiration from her Californian roots and South-American work
experience. Ramadan loves them in all their different guises: classic, golden, Tommy’s, she
even created the jalapeño margarita that appears on Omnia’s menu, but it is the smoky
margarita that is her pick of the bunch. Ramadan’s love of smoky flavours, and her
penchant for whisky, are beautifully showcased in her favourite Omnia creation – the
Smoked Old Fashioned – a mix of double-aged bourbon, spice-infused demerara and
vanilla bitters. The drink is then finished by being smoked tableside with Mark Foletta’s
cherry wood chips.
“It’s a classic cocktail that’s big and bold in flavour with our little spiced twist and smoke
element to it, you can’t go wrong!”
When she’s not working behind the bar, you will find Ramadan visiting other bars around
Melbourne with her passion for discovering new music. She sees the key to her success
coming from her ability to, “always staying positive, taking a breath and cracking a smile
through it all.”