The Guild Public House: Pub Financing

By AARON MESH

Having failed spectacularly as a publicly financed City Council candidate in 2010, Jesse Cornett has turned to a second affiliation as a publican—like Bud Clark, if Bud Clark never won anything. It is difficult to enter Cornett's new Rocket Building bar, The Guild Public House (1101 E Burnside St., 233-1743, theguildpub.com), without entertaining visions of fiasco: the server pouring scalding soup into your lap, say, or the bartender squirting vodka into her eyes while her hair catches fire. In fact, nothing like this happens. The Guild is a handsome if anodyne space, a bit like Grand Central Bowl condensed into a storefront, serving a fine grilled cheese with Granny Smith slices, a downright stellar chicken chowder (together for $7) and a strong if not well-mixed Old Fashioned ($7.50). There's even a hangover cure called the Corpse Reviver ($8), and seeing Cornett beaming happily at the till, you hope he may have a second act in him yet.

WWeek 2015

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