Jimihatt: The Guerrilla

Guerrilla Cuisine, our city’s underground supper club, started 26 dinners ago. It’s like walking into a culinary fantasy completely blind. You only know a few facts ahead of time: It will be on a Sunday night. It will feature a top chef. It will be a 5-7 course meal. You will be in an intimate setting (the dinners are very rarely held in a restaurant) with complete strangers as blind as you. You buy a ticket and hold on for the ride, which is always filled with great food, great conversation and an unforgettable energy that comes from feeling “underground.”

The mastermind behind this cool ritual, a man so synonymous with “Guerrilla” that he surely answers to it, is known simply as Jimihatt. A character in every sense of the word, he has become a celebrity of sorts in the foodie world, bringing us unique and inventive dinners that last four hours and are never similar to one another.

Take the most recent Guerrilla dinner. A hundred people fill the room, eyes scanning the other adventurous souls. The crowd is mixed: a pharmacist, a burlesque dancer, a masseuse, a dentist. This group has one thing in common: they love food. The clank of dishes unstacking, wine bottles opening with a chorus of popping corks and the loud chatter of people introducing themselves to their dining neighbors all set the stage as everyone anticipates what’s in store for them tonight. Jimihatt enters and whistles over the crowd. He welcomes everyone to Guerrilla Cuisine and leads them in a round of self-applause for being “the coolest people in Charleston today.” The only instruction is to hold on to your fork.

The night’s chef is introduced and Brett McKee swaggers out. Of course this is Brett-sensored, but the crowd is basically informed that they will be enjoying seven courses of nothing but pure joy. Okay, the description of “food porn” is given. And it was dead on. Creamy local goat cheese and mascarpone tomato soup, watermelon and tomato salad that burst with endless big flavors, delicate beef tenderloin carpaccio with truffles that one diner adequately refers to as “beef butter,” lemon sea scallops, eggplant, short ribs with honey and polenta, all finished with Brett’s “bad a**” blueberry cobbler. By now, there has been a half-time show (usually some type of musical performance, but this time a burlesque show), diners have wandered around to look at featured local art, empty wine bottles fill the long tables and every body is best friends. The whole room joins in to sing “Happy Birthday” to one of said friends. Jimihatt, Brett and all the cooks come out for a whooping applause. The best part of all? The bins at the front door filled with toys that attendees brought for the night’s beneficiary, MUSC’s Children’s Hospital. So the night ends and everyone leaves with full bellies, perma-smiles and new found foodie buddies. All thanks to the man. Jimihatt.

We know wild-eyed, bearded Jimihatt is never dull, but here are ten things you didn’t know about our city’s Kong:

1. He owns 329 cookbooks and is working on one of his own
2. He only drinks Budweiser beer or water
3. He doesn’t have cable TV
4. He thinks dinner is better after midnight
5. He has trophies in Taekwondo
6. He loves the color pink
7. He took his drivers test 5 times before passing (2 written, 3 driving)
8. He only owns one pair of shoes
9. He was “Mr. Popularity/GQ” in highschool and got all the girls
10. His real name is…wait for it…Jimi Cooper

Jimi Cooper. Jimihatt. Guerrilla. Random bearded dude in the corner. However you refer to him, one thing is certain. This man is a foodie force, and without him, we would never know just how cool dinner can get.

Next up: Guerrilla Cuisine Part Sous, Aug. 30, featuring sous chefs from Mercato, Grill 225, Tristan and FIG. GuerrillaCuisine.com

Story by: Caroline Nuttall
Photos by: Chrys Rynearson and Jonathon Stout