Showtime commences at Maybe Sammy
Sydney bar Maybe Sammy has turned to cult films and TV moments as inspiration for its new cocktail menu, Showtime.
Debuting next week (17 September), the Showtime menu takes inspiration from 12 defining moments from film and television. Each has been reimagined with the bar’s trademark mix of precision and play.
“This is about more than just drinks; it’s about creating an experience that blurs the line between cinema and the bar,” said Paolo Maffietti, Maybe Group’s director of bars, who led the development of Showtime. “We put months into R&D, concepting, and design, but also into the theatre of how we present each cocktail. It’s playful, it’s immersive, and it’s something we want people to remember long after the last sip.”
Every cocktail ties its flavour, technique and presentation back to the screen moment it celebrates.
As a playful nod to famous Aussie outback dweller Mick Dundee, the Crocodile Dundee is a Highball crafted with Glenfiddich 14-year-old, lemon myrtle, mango soda, coconut and macadamia. Leaning on native flavours and ‘rugged charm’, it is finished with a gelatine leaf studded with freeze-dried ants that deliver a sharp citrus kick.
Paying homage to The Grand Budapest Hotel is a Gimlet crafted with Ford’s Gin, pandan, watermelon, pink ginger, coconut water and coffee wash. It is served in custom glassware shaped like the Lobby Boy’s hat, and is said to be as precise and balanced as Wes Anderson’s frames, with a playful eccentricity.
Stanley Kubrick’s psychological horror The Shining was the inspiration for the team’s Whiskey Sour-style cocktail of the same name. The serve seeks to mirror protagonist Jack Torrance’s descent into madness, with a flavour profile that seems familiar, but beneath the creamy cloud of egg white and cream blend lurks Bourbon, plum and passionfruit with a creeping smokiness.
The Maybe Sammy team has tapped into its own brand of quirk with the Willy Wonka. This blends vodka, hazelnut, cacao and amarena cherry to create a rich and indulgent cocktail topped with a bubble garnish that bursts with Wonka-esque absurd delight. Meanwhile, TV series Peaky Blinders has inspired a whiskey-apple Highball that looks calm on the surface, with jasmine, apple mead and citrus lifted by green tea soda, but beneath has a ‘dangerous backbone’ of Benriach 10 and amontillado Sherry – a nod to Tommy Shelby’s deceptively calm ‘No fighting’ scene.
Natural historian and Planet Earth presenter Sir David Attenborough has inspired the creation of a trio of Martinis. This pays tribute to his Seven Worlds, One Planet series, with each serve channelling the flavour of a landscape. The first Martini, Ocean, is crafted with briny samphire and umami bitters, while Forest features an earthy mushroom distillate and cacao butter, and Desert boasts silky camel milk and bright orange bitters.
Other screen homages include The Great Gatsby, which takes the form of a bittersweet Spritz; Goodfellas, which is a bold Bloody Maria; Pirates of the Caribbean – a tiki-leaning Mai Tai; The Big Lebowski, which is described as a ‘deeper’ White Russian; and Ocean’s 11 – a slick Tequila Picante.
Each cocktail has been paired with its own cinematic-style trailer – written, directed and performed by the team – underscoring how Maybe Sammy continues to expand the idea of what a cocktail menu can be.
Shot across several months in locations around Sydney – from dusty deserts to moody mob backrooms and sets echoing The Shining – the trailers capture the stylised, tongue-in-cheek theatrics that have become Maybe Sammy’s hallmark.
Guests can view them in-venue via QR code, turning the menu into a cocktail anthology designed as much for the screen as for the glass. They are also being teased on the bar’s Instagram page.
The physical menu is crafted as vintage movie tickets bound like a swatch, while the digital version is designed as a cinema website, complete with ‘Now Showing’ signatures, ‘Classic Films (timeless cocktails), and ‘Premium Showings’ for high-roller serves.
By releasing just one cocktail menu a year, Maybe Sammy has sought to turn each unveiling into an event – a tradition that reflects the bar’s philosophy: ‘to create not just technically brilliant cocktails, but experiences that linger’.
You can view the cinematic-style trailers for each cocktail on the bar’s Instagram account:
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