Guilt & Company

My first time here was my last night in Vancouver before I headed back to Oregon, but the workers here made the night memorable. I believe the waiter who helped us was Kevin, who sat me and my friends promptly. I ordered a Devil On My Back. Will complete my review shortly after this nap. It was strong.

The acoustic sound is pristine, crisp and clean like a record. A place to sip a martini or kiss whiskey. Live music seems to be ‘pay by donation’ most of the time. A true gem, with amazing live music. And what I call ” a romantical «atmosphere:) love it!

This place is ok. It’s a music venue. Opens late on Sunday. Ordered the what’s the frequency and rock and roll. The frequency drink was a little strong. The rock and roll was good. I guess the drinks are not consistent here because my friend ordered it earlier they both tasted different. One thing to note is that the bathroom only say gents, but are unisex, which is confusing.

Guilt & Co is a wonderful underground speakeasy. The cocktails are really inventive and the live music was great! It was also fun watching couples get up and dance to the music. You should definitely check this place out if you’re in Vancouver!

The live music is excellent! Would love to see this place move to a bigger venue to accommodate a bigger audience and dance floor.

Went last night with a group of girls. We had to wait about 10 minutes at the door which was no problem. Got a good table and good service. The band was incredible! Wish I’d gotten the name of it. Will definitely be back.
The bathroom situation was weird. I didn’t realize it was a unisex thing until I actually went inside.

I liked this place… it is like entering into a basement as you have to go down from the street — kind of like a cave inside. The music was amazing! (especially on a Sunday night — nice to go out)…the band was called ‘Terminal Station’…go see them if you can! (someone from the band even came and talked with us). And, the bartender makes GREAT Black Russians (straight-​up, with no ice or coke)!! My husband liked his food (can’t remember what he had, though). The waitress was über-​friendly and even sat down with my husband and I. The bathroom was co-​ed, which at first threw me off, but I liked it (full stalls & clean). We will go again!

This place is just the best. A real commitment to live music and performance, amazing staff and in my opinion the best chill vibes in the city. They have re-​vamped their cocktail and food menus and the cocktails are great! I haven’t tried the new foods yet though. Soul salvation thursdays are my jam, I’ve been here easily 50+ times for Thursday nights. Dance, clap, and cheers your worries away, the crowd here is excellent. Not pretentious, just good join in the fun people.

This place is amazing! Particularly the cabaret! The bartender is the hardest working guy I’ve seen behind a counter! Hope he’s well compensated!

Very good jazz and music food super tasty too. Quite pricey but worth it. Get a seat at the front or you will miss out on the band. Lots of very good swing dancers practice here

NEVER, EVER GO HERE. A couple of Fridays ago, my friends and I were going to go see Purple Soul, which is my one friends dads band. We got there, and there was a line, which wasn’t an issue. The issue was when we got to the front of the line, the 2 door girls were being insanely manipulative and rude. We knew it was a donate-​what-​you-​can show and the girls tried to tell us they wouldn’t let us in unless we gave them at least 10 dollars each. When we told them we’d donate what we could, they told us to step aside so they could let the other people in behind us. When we threw in some cash, they told us we’d get in, but we wouldn’t get a table because of how little we paid. Is that even legal? I’ll never go back to Guilt & Co because of those 2 rude door girls, and neither will my 10 friends that were with me. So immature, and so unprofessional.

Avoid this place like the plague. Aggressive host staff asking a million questions. You can’t choose where to sit even if there are no reservations. If you’re 40, expect to get ID’d. Finally when you get to sit somewhere you are not comfortable with sitting at in the first place, your server is rude and snappy. Tip 18% and he will roll his eyes.
Not out to mention names, but this dank hole is better off for college kids and people who really do not care about service, seating, atmosphere, quality or well… Anything… Pretty much a cave to get black out drunk in. We felt like at any minute there would be a bar brawl in this dump or a Surrey shoot out.
Go upstairs to Chill Winston, they will appreciate you a lot more.

We came here after reading some reviews on Unilocal.Guilty & Pleasure was a great spot to hang out in Vancouver. Little line to get in, but not bad. Bouncers were nice. Bar tenders were quick with drinks.
Jen and her band were awesome!
Dance floor is smaller, but filled with really good dancers.
I would definitely recommend this spot.

Came here for the first time and was with a good group of friends. I want to say an older crowd, as my friends and I are all very young, but if this was true or not everybody was having a good time here.
Cover is by donation as they have live music 7 nights a week (amazing), and the drinks are a little pricey but not any more than one of my fave spots, The Diamond which is across the street.
The selling point for Guilt & Co is the live music. If you want drinks and live music, come here. Also, they’re food was pretty good but again quite pricey.

I always love Guilt & Co. because this place is the perfect place to grab a drink with your friends, listen to Live music, chill, and maybe meet new friends.
I love their cocktails here, so that is a MUST order. Each one is different made for a different type of night, and different type of palette. But, read all the flavour text under them because they are unique.
Came here on a regular night with a bunch of friends for cocktails and meeting-​up since we haven’t seen each other for the past four months. And we stayed for a good portion of the night~!!
Their red velvet cake though, is totally to die for, and the live music at the same time really makes the place the perfect lounge. Talk with friends, catch up and have delicious drinks at the same time? Yeah, this is the place!

Located beneath Chill Winston, this place is quite easy to miss if one doesn’t notice the sandwich board outside.
Parking here is absolutely horrendous. Look far away.
The lounge is literally a basement. It’s class, but not the largest space. The dim lighting adds to the ambience. Behind the stage area is a secret room that looks more like a former tunnel. The theme seems to be classy but vintage.
Staff were friendly, but were a bit too spaced out. We had trouble waving down the waitress. Because all of the tables are round, it is best not to go in too large of a group (5 max), as the tables cannot simply be combined.
I had the Honourable Mention cocktail. A neat little herbal concoction with chocolate mixed in. I must say I’m a sucker for cocktails. Too bad these things are also $ 10 – 15 for a half highball. Definitely can’t do this everyday.
There was a live band when I was there. Unfortunately, when they started playing, it got so loud that nobody at my table could hear each other anymore, effectively cutting our night short. They need to turn it down a notch or two. Loud does not automatically mean great. With that said, the musicians that night were somewhat decent.

As part of a Unilocal event I was taken here after the Prohibition Walking Tour which seemed appropriate given it is sort of underground.
I hadn’t been inside of this space since the 90s and it was way nicer now with wood beams and all the modern «old» fixings.
I liked the look (albeit REALLY dark), and the drink selection but it was loud. I’m unsure if this was the actual volume or poor acoustics but I had a hard time socializing.
We had some poutine, small but god, but kind of pricey. What struck me about the food menu here was that some of it seemed like the wrong place to order it. A $ 30+ swordfish meal? Not something I’m going to eat on a tiny bar table in this place (though I’m sure it was good).
I’d go back though, I just wish they would turn down the music a bit. (btw the 1 live performer we saw was good though).

I love the atmosphere of this place. Its a pub located underneath another pub. There is live band/​music playing even on a Monday night. The place is quite spacious and can be quite loud and busy. It can be a bit dark especially at night because after all it is located in a basement with minimal lighting but it does give it a good pub feel. But overall. this is a pretty good place to have a drink.
As well, we ordered one of their dessert to share. it had a pistachio bread with sorbet and pistachio cream. I didn’t like the pistachio bread I found it had an awkward texture to it. Its quite hard to describe, it’s a bit dense but my friend really liked it.
Maybe I will go try out their food another time.

I came to Vancouver for a long weekend and partied a little too much one night, the next night I wanted to still enjoy Vancouver while not over doing it… Guilt & Co. was the perfect spot.
The people at the front/​who sat us were so friendly, like I want to go back and hang out with them friendly. They were helpful– gave us tips on menu options, let us know where the better tables would be based on our preferences (closer to the music or away to enjoy but also hold a convo). The meal was tasty! Order the Bison Ribs because were absolutely amazing and the Chicken and Waffles (although it only had one drum stick) it was quite small but very good. The music was great! It was a blues trio who rocked it. It was dark, cool atmosphere and I loved most everything about this place.
The only complaint was our waitress. We had a different woman than the table next to us and she was a little inattentive. She barely checked on us (even when our drinks were empty), when we asked for water we never got it, we saw her running around but never really stopped by us. I felt slightly neglected and would have ordered more drinks if I had been given the chance! But that’s still didn’t take away from the overall awesomness of this place.

I haven’t been so excited to write a review in a long time! Good food, beer, cocktails, service, crowd, music, even washrooms. Everything about this place was fun and fresh. Let’s get into the delectable details:
Food, while I wanted yet another poutine, we opted for the healthy (–ish) broccoli (covered in cheese sauce with pearl onions) and the mac and cheese.
Alcohol, I had a choice of several local beers and the man had several tasty (and seemingly original) cocktails.
Service, the waitress was on the ball when our drinks were looking low. Was slightly less attentive with the water until I noticed the glass was chipped.
Music, the night I was there, Tonye Aganaba, who also happens to be the manager was on the mic. She was amazing and sang a few covers, a few originals but really had the crowd going. I enjoyed the amount of people rocking out and dancing at the front despite the cold and rainy weather outside.
Washrooms, yes, this gets its own category. They are actually unisex, kind of. Separate entrances for men and women that yield to the same room with a funky sinks and 5 total stalls with full length doors. 3 marked with W and 2 with an M. Also, there are windows into the washrooms. No hiding in there from your bad dates, people!

If you’re looking for Guilt & Co by address only, it’s a little hard to find this place. Your GPS/​map will take you to the actual «1 Alexander Street» to the right of Winston, but it’s just a doorway that tells you to go behind Winston. It’s actually the basement of Winston, and the entrance is on the left side of the building.
Our friend performed here on a Sunday night during the holidays. They don’t have the best acoustics but hey, it’s not a concert hall, and it was great to have live music at a bar! She had a chill, mellow sound, used a loop, and had a beautiful voice. She was opening for another artist that was something like poppy-​jazzy-​50s-​swing-​dancing music. I liked the contrast!
The service is kind of slow, but they seemed to be completely understaffed. It’s a really large bar area and there were just a few bartenders making the drinks (for both the tables and the bar) and maybe a couple servers.
We got there around 7:50pm that Sunday and it looked like it was going to be a relatively slow night with just a couple of tables with customers. We were able to sit right at the front to watch our friend perform. By the time she started at 8:30pm, it was much more packed and stayed that way well through midnight.
The drinks sound stellar when you read them off of the cocktail menu. But none of them overly impressed us.
* Rock Bottom Riser (Chili infused tequila, velvet falernum, crushed ice. Bodacious Merlot. $ 13) — 2.5 stars
This was definitely spicy, and that was the only part that impressed me. It was also a lot stronger than I expected, which to me drowned out any other subtle flavors there may have been. As a crushed ice drink, you also can’t really milk this because it’ll start melting and getting diluted really quickly.
* Holy Smoke (Bulleit bourbon, Laphroaig Quarter Cask, black tea, lemon, agave, pepper. $ 13.25) — 2.5 stars
My boyfriend got this and wasn’t too impressed by this one either. He’s usually an old-​fashioned-​type drink lover.
Rock Bottom & Holy Smoke:
* Belle (Cream of Earl Grey infused vodka, Chambord, vanilla, lavend3r, soda. $ 11.50) — 3 stars
This was a little better than the Holy Smoke or the Rock Bottom Riser, but it was a bit too sweet, and I usually like sweeter drinks!
Menu:

Avec un cocktail qui se nomme «I want to be adored» avec mes ingrédients favoris (gin, concombre, pamplemousse et d’autres dont je né me souviens pas), je suis tombée en amour automatiquement avec ce bar. Non seulement les cocktails ont des noms et descriptions des plus créatifs et délicieux, mais les prix sont super raisonnables. Pour deux cocktails, avec taxes et pourboire, ça m’a coûté à peine 20 $. Pour un super bar un peu caché en plein Gastown, c’est assez spécial comme endroit. Aussi à noter que même s’il y a une porte pour la salle de toilette des filles et l’autres pour les gars, elles mènent toutes deux à la même place. Ce qui porte à confondre et à penser «Ah ben! Un gars c’est trompé de salle de bain!». Les gens peuvent aussi voir à partir du bar ce qu’il se passé dans la salle de bain (pas les cubicules mais bien la partie commune avec les lavabos) donc si vous décidez de commencer un p’tit «dance party» avec des inconnus, ça se peut qu’on rie de vous/​on vous applaudi en sortant!