W Brisbane's Living Room Bar Is Hosting Bar Swaps with Other Top Watering Holes — Starting with Sydney's Maybe Sammy
If you can't make it to the first one-night event in the series, you can also enjoy the world-renowned Harbour City bar's sips on W Brisbane's in-room menu.
In Sydney, across Australia and around the globe, Maybe Sammy has earned quite the reputation. That's always going to be the case when the annual World's 50 Best Bars ranking shows a Harbour City watering hole plenty of love, including the venue in its list in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. For Brisbanites heading to Sydney, sips at Maybe Sammy should be on your agenda. What if you didn't need to venture south to enjoy its drinks, however? Enter: W Brisbane.
Getting Brisbanites tasting top-notch cocktails from award-winning venues around the world has been this hotel's game at its Living Room Bar for a few years now. In the past, acclaimed Barcelona bar Paradiso — aka the best bar on the World's 50 Best Bars list for 2022 — has whipped up a special menu featuring the Spanish spot's globally famous beverages. Enlisting bartending talents closer to home, Matt Whiley from Sydney's Re (which placed 46th on the World's 50 Best Bars list in 2021) also created a Conscious Cocktails lineup, heroing a low-waste approach.
Now comes the brand-new Bar Swap Series, making a habit out of bringing acclaimed bars to Brisbane on a regular basis. It all kicks off from 6pm on Thursday, February 27, 2025 with Maybe Sammy making the jump north. The venue's mixologist and Venue Manager Giorgio Gervasoni will be behind the bar, assisted by W Brisbane's own Francesco Squillacioti, the Bar Manager of Living Room Bar.
Perhaps you'd like to try the Check In, a gin-based highball that's inspired by the Americano a twist. Or, the vodka-based, sour-flavoured, shaken Sauna Room might tempt your tastebuds. On the four-drink menu, another option features agave, kalamata olives distillate, seaweed dry vermouth, and capsicum vinegar, while there's also a blend of vodka, lacto-fermented strawberries, sencha tea and mango soda. Whatever tempts your tastebuds, walk-ins are welcome at the series' first one-night affair.
Can't make it on the evening? W Brisbane is also adding the Maybe Sammy sips to its in-room menu from February, which is a great excuse for a staycation in the River City's CBD.
There's no word yet which other bars from beyond Brisbane will feature in the Bar Swap Series in the future, but stellar cocktails from further afield joining the menu in the Queensland capital, even if only temporarily, is worth saying cheers to.
Marriott International Hotel
The first event in W Brisbane's Living Room Bar's Bar Swap Series is taking place from 6pm on Thursday, February 27, 2025 at 81 North Quay, Brisbane. Maybe Sammy cocktails are on the hotel's in-room menu from February 2025. Head to the venue's website for further details.
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