When Death & Co. opened its first bar in 2006, it rapidly established itself as one of the premiere names in the modern craft cocktail movement through its innovative approach to creating new drinks. Now, the company is hoping to do the same in the emerging RTD cocktail category with its first retail consumer product: a line of canned libations, which launched this month.
Founded as a single cocktail bar in New York City, Death & Co. became famous for its approach to developing inventive cocktails, becoming the birthplace for now-popular drinks such as the “Oaxacan Old Fashioned” and the “Naked & Famous.” In 2008, the company published its first book featuring its recipes and has since expanded across the country, opening up new locations in Denver and Los Angeles.
Speaking with BevNET last week, Devon Tarby, a partner and acting VP of food and beverage for Death & Co. parent company Gin & Luck, said the extension into CPG has been a longtime goal for the hospitality brand, but now arrives as one of several verticals in a broader expansion strategy that also includes new restaurant openings, consulting and online education platforms.
“For me, [ready-to-drink expansion] really started with understanding that there are ingredients that we could use to assemble delicious cocktails that make those cocktails shelf-stable,” Tarby said. “And of course, when you see guests enjoying drinks you’re like, ‘Oh man, how can I package this? How can I get this out to more folks?’ So I think, on a more ephemeral level, it’s been a dream for quite some time.”
The ready-to-drink cocktails, created in partnership with The Craft Spirits Cooperative, are available in three varieties: Aurora Highball (vodka, pear brandy, sake, green tea and mint syrup), Moonsail Fizz (gin, red bitter liqueur, passion fruit, vanilla syrup and lime) and Ranger Buck (bourbon, amaro, ginger syrup and birch). The former two will retail for $5 per 6.75 oz. can or $20 for a 4-pack, while Ranger Buck is priced at $6 a can or $24 per 4-pack.
The cocktails are available now in limited retail distribution in California, New York, Maine and Georgia, with more states expected to come online in the near future, as well as online at DrinkFellows.com, a new ecommerce platform developed by Death & Co. and Craft Spirits Cooperative to sell the line as well as other partner spirit brands.
According to Tarby, the shelf-stable cocktails were developed with the same philosophy towards high quality and craft innovation as its restaurant menus. A refusal to compromise the taste with pasteurized citrus juice created a more limited range of options for what types of drinks could be canned, so rather than focus on substitutes the drinks emphasize ingredients that are naturally shelf stable (like passion fruit and mint) or play towards bolder, classic cocktail-styled flavor profiles (bitters and amaro).
For this initial launch, the team opted to focus on carbonated variations on a highball. However, the line is expected to be a revolving door of seasonal and limited flavor launches, Tarby noted. While the launch varieties are likely permanent, depending on their sales performance, Death & Co. intends to regularly introduce new and different kinds of cocktails to the line, similar to the way its bars refresh their menus on a regular basis.
“We’re approaching it with the same level of thoughtfulness and integrity that we are with the rest of the growth, which is to say we are focusing on the product first,” she said, “We’re not going to say, set our sights on getting into a big box retailer and then figure out how to produce it from there to meet those needs. We see it as something that will hopefully grow organically, just as our brand has, but we’re certainly very active in the marketing efforts.”
While Death & Co. managed to thrive for over a decade as a destination bar and restaurant, it was only within the past few years that the company made moves to become a multi-armed organization. In 2018, it raised nearly $2.7 million from equity crowdfunding platform SeedInvest and established its parent company Gin & Luck, which now owns Death & Co. and hospitality consulting firm Proprietors, LLC.
The bar brand has since opened its Denver and L.A. locations and according to Tarby is now eyeing additional cities (including, potentially, Boston, Chicago, Miami, Seattle and Washington, D.C.) as well as creating a new bar brand, under a different name, that will operate elsewhere around the country, with Portland, Maine serving as a potential launchpad.
The expansion into CPG reflects an opportunity to grow the Death & Co. name further, but the brand is also entering into a nascent RTD cocktail category that has become quickly saturated with entrants from both startup brands and established spirits producers. But as a brand built around creativity and a deep-seated philosophy around mixology, Death & Co. is hoping to bring a bartender’s touch to the retail set.
While that alone makes Death & Co.’s entrance into the space unique, Tarby said it was the pandemic that gave the company the confidence to move ahead with its expansion. She noted that despite only operating three physical bars around the country, the Death & Co. brand has a strong social media presence and during the pandemic saw its book and merchandise sales spike.
“Over the last several years I think we really saw an opportunity in retail and that hunch was confirmed during the lockdown when all of our bars were closed,” she said. “People were very excited about our [online merchandise] marketplace and we exceeded our projections on everything there. So we’re leaning into it, we really see that people connect with the brand and they want to keep connecting with it outside of the doors of our bars.”
The partnership with Craft Spirits Cooperative, a California-based brand incubator experienced in brick-and-mortar execution, will be vital to helping Death & Co. establish a presence in the CPG industry, and the operations surrounding the canned line are a hand-in-hand partnership. Where Death & Co. is focused on the formulation of the drinks and marketing, Craft Spirits is in charge of production, distribution and sales (notably, Death & Co. is prohibited from controlling the line outright due to regulations preventing it from owning both a liquor license and liquor production, Tarby said).
Furthering the synergies between the companies, the canned cocktails use spirits made by other Craft Spirits aligned brands, including Bimini Gin and bourbon and vodka from Woody Creek Distillers.
Another arm of the partnership is DrinkFellows, an alcohol ecommerce platform which connects consumers with local retailers carrying its brands, including Death & Co., the broader Craft Spirits portfolio and additional partner brands. According to Tarby, the intertwined ventures will ideally serve as a trial driver for all the companies involved.
“We are working with actual craft spirits you’ll also be able to buy on the website,” she said. “So if you fall in love with the Moonsail Fizz, which has Bimini Gin in it, you’ll also be able to buy a bottle of Bimini Gin from the website. Which I think is really cool.”