A Drink With Jimi Sides, The Corner Melt

Jimi Sides, cheesemonger, The Corner Melt

Who would you most like to go out drinking with?
Haruki Murakami because I want to ask him so many questions that his books left me wondering about. Like Johnny Walker, the cat killer, from Kafka on the Shore – what was he going to do with that flute and the souls it could take when it was completed?

RELATED: Cheesy Dreams Come Alive at The Corner Melt

Tell us about the first time you were drunk.
I woke up on a North Sea beach alone with a mouth full of sand and no shoes. After I found my way back to my host's home, I was told matter-of-factly that: "You wouldn't stop talking in a horrible Geordie accent, so we took your shoes and filled your mouth with sand." As if that was protocol for black-out drunk Americans in northern England.

Tell us about the last time you were drunk.
Last Thursday I decided to share the art of strawpedo with some friends. This takes bottled beer chugging to the next level. You need a bendy straw to act as a way for the air to enter. With the straw in the bottle, but bent outside of your mouth, you're able to inhale the beer. I love science. Needless to say I got wasted teaching people how to do it.
 
What’s your golden rule of drinking?
Don't appear to over-drink. Nurse your drink in front of your friends and pound a quick beer on the way to the bathroom. Or go for a pack of smokes and grab a quick beer.

Where’s the dumbest place you’ve gone drinking?
Around the age of 16 my friends and I thought we had the perfect place to get drunk – the middle of a corn maze at night. We figured the cops wouldn't be able to find us. They couldn't and neither could our friends arriving late. Needless to say after consuming excessive amounts of beer and Captain Morgan we destroyed the corn maze by walking straight on through and out of there. It must have looked like a drunken crop circle the next day.

What are your secret watering holes?
It's literally a hole filled with water! Xihai is the smallest lake north of Houhai near Jishuitan. Bring your own booze, though, as there's nothing there but homes and fisherman.

Catch Jimi grilling cheese at The Corner Melt.