Etcetera’s a name that leaves you wanting more, but doesn’t give much away – but it’s a whisky and tapas bar. Not natural bedfellows perhaps, but you don’t have to have both at the same time, and it’s quite good fun.
In terms of the tapas, there’s a full range of sharing classics – croquetas stuffed several ways (cod, ham, blue cheese and walnut), seafood frito with aioli, garlic prawns, grilled bread with tomatoes. And good they are too. There’s also a brunch menu and Sunday roasts.
As for the whisky, there are malts from the US and Ireland as well as Scotland and Japan. An interesting selection includes Nikka from the Barrel, the limited-release Auchroisk Batch 1 or Kentucky Vintage. In keeping with this grizzled and spirit-soaked vibe, there’s live blues on certain nights. Local craft brews complete the picture.
It’s not exactly a genuine juke joint though. Staff are friendly, the tapas are more than decent and the whisky is list is one worth working through. But the look is largely what we’ve come to expect from such new openings in 2013 – bare brick walls, bare-filament lightbulbs, big windows, rickety furniture, and so on. Maybe that’s why it’s called Etcetera.
Reviewed by Euan Ferguson