Off the Market is no one-and-done

Draft in Belmont Park combines the best of beery cheer with a mix of high spirits (think: boilermaker in a cocktail dress) — such as the Off the Market.

“We don’t incorporate beer into all our cocktails, but we do like to keep with our beer theme,” Draft’s bar manager Austin Swint says, “so if we can find a beer that goes well as a component of a cocktail we’re working on, we’ll go that route.”

The Off the Market makes a light investment, Swint says, in the delicate dialogue between beer and citrus and also invites rye to contribute a few honeyed words to the conversation.

“The very first thing you’re going to taste is some acid up front because of the citrus in it, but immediately followed by the spice in the whiskey,” he says. “It’s not overpowering — just a little something up front. Then the spritz from the effervescence of the hefeweizen, and it follows up with that fantastic Templeton rye. It doesn’t linger because the rye is chased by the acidity of the citrus and the depth of the orange in the bitters.”

This sudsy drink’s name, Swint says, comes from an area brewery’s white beer — Temecula’s Black Market hefeweizen.

In adding a beer-topped whiskey cocktail to the menu, Swint says, the challenge was to keep the palate from tuckering out after the first round.

“We didn’t feel the traditional whiskey cocktails would fall into that light and refreshing category,” he says. “So we went with something that had a nice balance between sweetness and acidity. It has to be drinkable, something you can drink more than one of. We don’t want you to be sitting there, even if it tastes good, thinking it’s too heavy — one and done.”