If Salvador Dalí opened a bar in Kolkata after binging on instant ramen and a Gangs of Wasseypur marathon, one imagines it would look a lot like Nutcase Etc. This 650-square-foot fever-dream deep in the bowels of Kalighat isn't quite your neighbourhood watering hole (although it could certainly be that!). It's a postmodern shrine to poor life decisions, midlife crises, and the evergreen philosophical question: What if your dinner could get you hammered?
See, the truth is, Kolkata's drinking culture has always been a bit… bipolar. Until recently, you either nursed a dangerously sentimental relationship with Old Monk long past its prime or drank cheap whisky in a colonial-era pub that hasn't changed its serveware since the 90s. Of course, there was always Bangla Mawd — Bengal's own government-approved moonshine — and overpriced rooftop sangrias in Salt Lake only Sector-V tech-bros would pay for, but we have come a long way since then. Nutcase, Rituparna and Avinandan Banerjee's fever-dream project, is the cure to Kolkata's colonial hangover and contemporary identity crisis.
Located beneath Skinny Mo's Jazz Club in Kalighat and next to a boutique so cool it probably judges your dress sneakers, the bar's Bauhaus-gone-bonkers interiors play host to 35 people and at least 70 existential crises a night. But it's not the décor that'll make you double-take — it's the cocktails.
The cocktails at Nutcase are less 'drinks' and more high-concept existential questions. There's Tangra Town, which tastes like you're drinking your favourite Indian-Chinese takeout — chicken broth, scallion, bell pepper, soy and all. There's Nutcase Brekkie, a breakfast cocktail made with cereal-infused whiskey and toasted milk, ideal for Bengali men who believe childhood trauma and alcoholism should be served in the same glass. And then there's Sushi?, a vegan seaweed-sake-Bombay Sapphire situationship that asks important questions like, "What if your drink judged you for eating things that have a mother?"
And if you get the munchies after all that, fret not. The nutties at Nutcase have you covered. There's five-spice smoked eggs with chili crisp, a Nutcase favourite, because nothing says "I'm thriving" like devilled eggs in a dimly lit bar at 11 PM. Then there's the butter garlic crab dip with mantau buns, which sounds like bait but tastes like a dream. And of course there are noodles too, because all great decisions are made over carbohydrates and confusion.
Open Tuesday through Sunday, 5 PM to midnight — because even absurdism needs a schedule — Nutcase isn't your average cocktail bar, nor does it want to be one. You don't come here for a casual drink. You come to confront your choices, flirt with chaos, and possibly drink a Negroni that probably has stronger opinions about Marxist-Leninist theory than you do. It's not the cocktail bar Kolkata needs — it's the cocktail bar Kolkata deserves.
You can follow Nutcase here.
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