The Story Behind The Conference

While tough to master, stirred, spirit-forward drinks tend to have relatively simple builds, with the list of ingredients usually capped at three or four components. Of course, rules are made to be broken. With a whopping four base spirits, two types of bitters, a sweetener, and two garnishes, the Conference is a layer cake of a cocktail, managing to be delicately fruity, dry, oaky, and austere all at the same time.

The cocktail’s story dates back to one late night in August 2007, when bartender Brian Miller was behind the stick at NYC’s Death & Co. As his shift was winding down, one of the servers asked him to make her something stirred and boozy. “At the time, I was really into rye and bourbon,” Miller, who now works as the head bartender at New Jersey's Stockton Inn, tells VinePair. “And I’ve always loved Cognac and Calvados, so I just threw those four ingredients together to make an Old Fashioned.” He topped it off with some Angostura and Fee Brothers’ Whiskey Barrel-Aged Bitters, and sent it out.

The cocktail, as Miller tells us, was OK, but wasn’t quite finished yet. At this point, he started tinkering with different bitters to see what would tie the four base spirits together. Someone across the bar took notice, and offered some unsolicited, albeit crucial, advice. “One of our regulars was Avery Glasser from Bittermens Bitters,” Miller says. “He's like, ‘Brian, maybe you should throw some of our Mole bitters in that.’” And so he did.

“It tied that drink together like a shoelace,” Miller says. Thus, the Conference was born. Since then, it’s been a staple on every Death & Co bar menu, whether at its NYC flagship, L.A. brick and mortar, Washington, D.C., or Denver location.

As for the drink’s name, it comes from the ‘70s and ‘80s war comedy sitcom “M*A*S*H.” “Some of my favorite episodes are when the doctors are playing cards,” Miller says. “They all check into the “M*A*S*H” unit, and they say, ‘the conference will start in 20.’” Specifically, in the Season 2 episode “Deal Me Out,” the company clerk Radar is handing out drinks to all of the guests when he says, “Compliments of the Colonel: Scotch, bourbon, and gin, for your convenience, all in the same glass.”

The Conference’s multi-spirit build is undoubtedly reminiscent of the rum blending we associate with tropical drinks, and given that Miller now has a reputation for being an enthusiast of all things tiki, one would assume that the Conference is a tropical-inspired take on an Old Fashioned. However, that wasn’t the case. “I wasn't always a tiki pirate,” he says. Bartender Toby Maloney had actually made him a Martini with two different gins prior to the night of the Conference's creation. “That got me thinking,” Miller says. “If I like all of these brown spirits, why can’t I blend them all together in a cocktail?”

Just like a balanced rum blend, the Conference highlights how four spirits can fuse to create something new and unique. There’s the oaky sweetness of bourbon, the dry spiciness of rye, and the fruit-forward character of two brandies all in the same sip. Miller recommends sticking to the brands he’s used from the get-go. “It's all about those specific four spirits,” he says. “I think the only change I've made is garnishing with a lemon disc instead of a lemon twist.”