For Liana Oster, it all began with the understated allure of a Ruski Lemon — think an Australian Smirnoff Ice — that she marked her 18th birthday with. An inauspicious start, perhaps, but a start nevertheless. Other sorts follow, but these days, she’s moved onto more refined lemony drinks — Three Sheets’ bottled French 75 suits her best these days. Oster currently serves as bar director of the prestigious NoMad Hotel, located in the former Bow Street Magistrates' Court. It’s the same location where Oscar Wilde was once famously tried; and as Wilde once pronounced: “I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.” Spend enough time at the NoMad, it seems, and a bon vivant you shall become.
Oster’s appointment here is the culmination of a bar career that’s been nothing short of exceptional. The Australian’s career really got going while working for Melbourne’s now closed Bar Americano, where she was named rookie of the year in 2016 by Time Out. It was a platform she used to leap from Down Under to one of the world’s most celebrated cocktail bars, New York’s Dante.
