Rama Pattison on Bakery Bros, MMA, Brotherhood and Building a Business After His Dad Took the Shop

What happens when your dad takes back the business, the staff and the shop — and you have to start again from $80 in the bank?

In this episode of What Are We Drinking?, Rachel sits down with Rama Pattison, MMA fighter and co-owner of Bakery Bros at The Orchard in Penrith, over an Espolòn Sparkling Margarita.

Rama takes Rachel through growing up in the Blue Mountains with undiagnosed ADHD, getting expelled from school by year seven, and finding basketball and then MMA as the only places that made sense. He talks through his first fight — under-trained, overconfident, a third-round TKO win — and how that led him into the gym where he met UFC fighter Tyson Pedro, the mentor and now business partner he now lives and works alongside.

The conversation turns to the family bakery business, built with his father, and the split that saw Rama lose the shop, the staff and the equipment in one move. He talks about rebuilding from nothing with Tyson and their friend Connie, opening Bakery Bros days before launch with barely enough cash to cover the lease, and turning it into a working wholesale operation.

Rachel and Rama also get into brotherhood, masculinity and why men are finally talking to each other, fatherhood and what kind of man he wants to be, and Bake and Grow — the community baking program Rama runs with Aden from OurChoice Disability, teaching kids skills they don’t always get the chance to build elsewhere.

This episode is honest, unfiltered and a genuinely good watch for anyone who’s had to rebuild from a number that started with a dollar sign and not many zeroes.