The Maybe Group recently took over the site that was formerly the Four Pillars Gin Laboratory on Crown Street in Sydney. As well as taking over the first floor bar space of the site, the group also inherited the retail store on the ground level at 410 Crown Street, Surry Hills.
And while a venture into the off-premise was not necessarily something the group was envisaging, once the opportunity arose, Co-Founder Stefano Catino was always going to bring some of the Maybe style to the store.
“They had the Four Pillars Gin in the space before, and I just thought ‘why don’t we put our bottled cocktails in there, it gives us another opportunity to promote these products and anything else we come up with,” he told National Liquor News.
“So, we have the full range of Maybe Sammy Bottled Cocktails in there. We do regular collaborations, so let’s say if you are Martini and you want to launch a new Vermouth, we can work together, create a beautiful cocktail, we can price it accordingly and put it into the shop.
“We can also then put the cocktail upstairs in the bar, so it has a dual effect.”
There are currently six cocktails in the Maybe Sammy bottled cocktail range, comprising Chamomile Martini, Eucalyptus Gimlet, Jasmine Negroni, Lychee Martini, Maybe Margarita and Sundown Aperitivo. The group also has a range of packs and cocktail and glassware sets that will be available in the Crown Street store.
While the retail store is open, Catino said the group has been focusing more on the move and re-fit of its Mezcal and Tequila bar, El Primo Sanchez upstairs, but there is still the opportunity for customers to come for the Maybe Sammy experience in retail.
“We are opening now,” Catino told NLN, “we’re in the very primary stages. We have a little outdoor area, you can have a cocktail from the menu upstairs from Sanchez and then we can sell those to you in the shop. It’ll be like a hub. We will be doing tastings in there, we are still working on things, and thinking about what we really want to do, but you know, we want to make it sexy.
“We’re going to make a beer in there, we’ll be making the Sammy cocktails in there, all the range of our products. You can find all the Maybe Sammy cocktails, you can find our beer, our gift bag and we sell our own glassware, so it will have everything that is in the Maybe universe. We’re starting with the cocktails, but we’ll also be putting in every SKU that we ever do, you’ll be able to get all our collaborations that we do in there.”
In these early days, the store is open at the same times as El Primo Sanchez is open upstairs, but Catino said he is working on getting people there every day. Maybe Sammy opened in 2019 and has consistently been listed as one of the World’s 50 Best Bars since then, so it is exciting to see what the team behind that, and other award-winning concepts will bring to the retail sphere.
See more of the store below:
