Amira Vanest
Assistant General Manager
Amira Vanest is the Assistant General Manager and Private Dining Coordinator at Vida, where she has found a career that brings together the things she loves most: people, food, storytelling, and creating spaces where people feel that they belong. Amira has always been drawn to the people and stories that make a community what it is, and having lived within two miles of Vida her whole life, the people who walk through the restaurant’s doors are neighbors, former colleagues, friends, families, artists, and community members she has come to know throughout her life.
Amira has spent time finding ways to connect with the people around her and contribute to the city she loves. Before entering the hospitality industry, she worked at The Law Office of Ranissa Dycus, writing expungements and filing cases, and spent several years at the Harrison Center, where she helped plan and lead events including FoodCon and the Independent Music and Arts Festival, now known as BloomBox. Her work there involved managing budgets, organizing staff and volunteers, working with boards and vendors, and helping produce events that welcomed thousands of people into Indianapolis’s art scene. Working alongside artists, musicians, farmers, vendors, and neighborhood leaders taught her that understanding a community means spending time with the people who make it, hearing their stories, and discovering what matters to them.
During her three years at Purdue University, Amira earned 2 degrees, in Marketing and Law & Society. This education shaped her understanding of how business performance, guest experience, and human connection coalesce. This experience influences her approach to hospitality and leadership: she believes that every person who walks through Vida’s doors has a unique story, and reason for being there, yet something individual that will make their experience meaningful.
She began her journey at Vida as a hostess and has spent the past years growing into restaurant leadership. Along the way, she has developed a strong understanding of the restaurant’s operations and a deep appreciation for the team behind them. She loves working alongside the cooks, dishwashers, servers, assistant servers, bartenders, hosts, food runners, and sommeliers. Whether supporting a teammate, making a decision, or helping develop a new system, she considers the personalities, strengths, needs, and perspectives of the people involved.