Sammy’s renovation becomes available after the Sign of the Times story. Meet Aunt Lily at the ruined bar, inspect the renovation menu, and restore its categories over several purchases. Two side missions—Angry White Boys and Lil Ernie—gate later progress, so buying upgrades alone will not complete the project.
Community and achievement references consistently place the full investment at $186,000. Treat that as a project budget, not an early-game shopping list: keep money for armor, ammunition, and normal campaign services while you renovate.
Unlock the restoration project
Finish the Ensanglante storyline through …Worse Than Dying, return to Sammy’s, and speak with Lily. If only the cult story marker is available, the renovation has not yet reached its handoff point.
Complete the DLC story
The bar project follows Sign of the Times; it is not available merely because Definitive Edition owns the DLC.
Meet Aunt Lily
Use her interaction at Sammy's to open the upgrade categories and learn the next requirement.
Buy in manageable groups
Purchase visible upgrades, leave money for campaign play, and return when the next mission or tier appears.
Finish the gated missions
Complete Angry White Boys and Lil Ernie when Lily offers them, then buy the remaining improvements.
The renovation is separate from Herbalism. Restoring the bar does not create the grow-house cycle, and growing crops does not automatically buy any bar category. The two systems simply pair well because Herbalism can fund Lily’s project.
Plan the $186,000 budget
Do not arrive with the exact total and assume one uninterrupted purchase screen will finish everything. Progress is divided among décor and functional areas, and mission gates interrupt the spending path.
Build regular income first. Raise racket earn through trafficking, collect kickback, and bank it. If Faster, Baby! is complete, start a crop before each renovation mission and sell it when you return. Races are another repeatable source when the grow house is still low rank.
Keep a reserve large enough for the weapons, ammunition, armor, and vehicle upgrades you actually use. Sammy’s restoration is emotionally important and achievement-related, but it does not replace those combat tools.
Work through the renovation categories
The menu covers the bar’s visible recovery: structure, furnishings, music, murals, and upstairs or office spaces among its improvements. Buy what is currently offered and watch how the environment changes. A category that stops presenting the next level may be waiting for Lily’s mission rather than more cash.
After a group of purchases, leave the menu, allow the dialogue and autosave, and walk through the bar. Return to Lily to see whether a side mission has opened. This is safer than rapidly buying items while an earlier completion message is still playing.
Use a simple list of category and level. The achievement checks the completed restoration, not whether the room merely looks finished from the entrance.
Complete Angry White Boys
This mission appears during the renovation sequence after enough progress has been made. Select it in the journal and follow Lily’s lead. Arrive with a normal combat loadout rather than assuming a construction mission has no hostile component.
Finish every marked objective and wait for the return dialogue at Sammy’s. If the upgrade menu remains unchanged, leave the area, allow an autosave, and come back. Confirm the mission no longer appears active before buying the next category.
The exact number of purchases before the trigger can be described differently by older guides, so rely on the current journal and Lily’s prompt rather than a rigid click count.
Complete Lil Ernie and open the final work
Lil Ernie is the second required renovation mission. Achievement guides associate its appearance with mural progress, but the reliable signal is Lily offering the journal objective. Do not spend the remaining reserve elsewhere if a locked category is waiting for this mission.
Complete the drive, combat, and return steps shown on the map. As with the first gate, let the final conversation and save finish before reopening the renovation menu.
Once both missions are done, purchase every remaining level. Walk through the restored upstairs and main bar, then trigger the opening sequence when prompted.
Finish Pour Sammy safely
Pour Sammy! is tied to completely renovating the bar. Make a manual save before the final purchase, keep Steam online, and wait for the achievement notification after the completion scene.
If it remains locked, compare every category for an unbought tier and confirm both Lily missions show complete. Exit the game normally, update AppID 360430, restart Steam, and perform a fresh final interaction if one remains.
Do not use a third-party achievement unlocker or someone else’s completed save. The October 2026 patch improved achievement tracking, so old workarounds that assume broken cumulative state should not be the first response.
What the completed bar provides
The strongest reward is narrative closure: Lincoln and Lily rebuild a place central to the Robinson family and Delray Hollow. The restored rooms, staff, and opening sequence make the investment visible.
The bar should not be treated as a passive-profit replacement for rackets or Herbalism. Plan the expense because you want the story, environment, and achievement. Players who need money should develop income first and renovate second.
If an upper area remains visually inaccessible after completion, reload the post-opening save and check the intended route. Avoid assuming an old report proves the current Steam build has the same problem.
Sources and verification
- Sammy’s Renovation — same-DLC story and project cross-check.
- Complete renovation mission video — PC route showing purchases, Angry White Boys, Lil Ernie, and opening sequence.
- Pour Sammy! achievement guide — independent full-cost and two-side-mission requirement.
- Mafia III: Definitive Edition on Steam — exact product and bundled story-DLC scope.