An underground bar for music lovers.
Ask Jordan Stewart to describe Guilt & Co. and he’ll tell you it’s a cross between a bar and a restaurant with live music in a sexy basement. And as the owner of the Gastown staple, he knows what he’s talking about.
While Guilt & Co. may have opened their subterranean doors in 2010, working in the music industry is something that Jordan has been preparing for his entire life. For him, doing something with music was less of a conscious decision and more destiny if you believe in that kind of thing. Both his father and grandfather were musicians who introduced Jordan to a wide spectrum of musical genres that most kids wouldn’t even know. In the Stewart household, waking up to a man jamming on the banjo in the family living room was just another Sunday. As Jordan remembers, “music was a way to be social, readily available, and came at no cost—it just existed to be discovered and enjoyed.”
As an adult, Jordan saw that this beautiful art form that helped shape him was being commodified. Reduced to ticketed events with hefty price tags, a barrier that would keep many people from discovering new musicians and genres they might come to love. So, he set out to create a live music venue that would feel intimate, amplify local musicians, and, most importantly, keep the music playing for anyone who wanted to listen.
