Two popular Northampton hospitality businesses join forces to open restaurant with ‘unique offering’

Two popular Northampton hospitality businesses have joined forces to open a restaurant, which hopes to provide a “unique offering” in the town centre.

Pala is the brainchild of Santina’s Woodfired Pizza Co. and Saints Coffee, and will bring “a little taste of Naples to Northampton”.

Offering Neapolitan pizza, small plates known as cicchetti, and cocktails, Pala is still in the very early stages but will be opening in Derngate.

Ben Francoise and Nicola Butler from Saints Coffee and Oli Nesbitt and Lauren Vicentijevic from Santina’s have collaborated on many occasions since Saints Coffee first opened in St Giles’ Street.

With the popularity of Santina’s pizza and the pop-up events they host around the county, the four saw this as a great opportunity to take their collaboration to the next level.

When asked what the town can expect from the new addition, Ben said: “Pala will provide a welcoming atmosphere and somewhere customers enjoy being.

“Excellent food, drinks and service are important first and foremost.”

Despite it being a challenging time for the hospitality industry at the moment, Ben said: “We felt confident and sometimes you just have to take the opportunity.

“We’ve always wanted to explore different avenues in hospitality.”

Oli and Lauren, from Santina’s, said: “We’re buzzing to be opening a restaurant.

“We hope to bring a little taste of Naples and something fresh to Northampton. Santina’s has gone from strength to strength, and this is a logical next step for us as a business.”

The restaurant will be located at the heart of the Cultural Quarter, with “beautiful views either way you look” and independent businesses and the Royal & Derngate theatre nearby.

“It’s an iconic building,” said Ben. “It was a no-brainer to bring a new food offering to that area.”

The two businesses first began collaborating in early 2022, when Santina’s was one of the first to work with Saints Coffee.

The idea about setting up a restaurant together was thrown around in May last year and the unit was secured in the lead up to Christmas, before they got the keys in mid-April.

After revealing the plans for the restaurant on social media just a few days ago, Pala has already exceeded 1,000 followers on Instagram and more than 300 comments of people sharing their excitement.

Ben said: “It’s amazing. The wonderful thing about Northampton is how supportive everyone is of independent businesses.

“It has been eye opening to see the immediate support people give and their eagerness to try new things.”

Though the team is not naive to the fact there are other restaurants offering pizza and cocktails, they hope to combine them in their own “unique way”.

The restaurant name, Pala, is the name of the paddle used to take pizza in and out of ovens – and they were pleased to find a short and catchy word that encapsulates what the venue will offer.

Some of the decorating, trade work and sourcing of equipment is underway and the team has a clear vision of what they want to achieve.

However, as it is still such early days, the opening date is yet to be confirmed.

To keep up to date with Pala, you can follow their Instagram page here.