Meet the new owner of a ‘sexy’ new bar in Northampton town centre

Noir, on George Row, opened on Friday, September 11, and is the latest venture from wine professional Clare Douglas and her business partner Bailey Cooper.

The independent bar serves wine, four beers on draft, cocktails, wellbeing mocktails, soft drinks and coffee, with food due to be introduced in the coming weeks.

Asked how the opening had gone, owner Claire said: “Really well, it was very successful. We thought it would be kind of a quiet opening because we hadn't really pushed it, but it was very well supported. We’re very grateful.”

Explaining more about the business, she said: “We're a wine bar, but we also have four beers on draft.

“We work with Brewpoint over in Bedford. We do cocktails and we do some like well-being mocktails as well as other soft drinks.

“During the day we do coffee as well and we'll be introducing food in a couple of weeks.”

On where the idea for Noir came from, she said: “I used to be a wine buyer.

“I've previously had bars, so I used to own Ruby and Claret in Earls Barton and I sold that. I opened it in 2018 and I sold it in 2022.

“And then went to work with a guy called James Peck for a couple of years, which was good fun.”

She continued: “A friend of mine, Bailey, who had been managing V&B, and I were chatting about kind of a different concept for like a non-traditional wine bar. Then we started seriously thinking about doing this back in January.”

Explaining the vibe in Noir, she said: “We have quite heavy focus on music. And we're a big focus on kind of vinyl. Things like the vinyl listening bars that you have in London.

“We're working to kind of create that kind of vibe. We also work with the DJs from Vinyl Underground. We have a residency with them.

“They're with us every Saturday and we'll be doing other events with them through the month as well.”

Asked what made her want to bring the concept to Northampton, Clare said: “I've always had a big faith in the people of Northamptonshire in general. They've always supported my other businesses very well.

“I think people do want somewhere nice to go and they do support it once they have it.”

She added: “Of course it’s scary opening in the hospitality industry right now. But I feel confident in the concept.

“I think we got a very warm response over the weekend. I'm excited to see where we go with it.”

On the location, she said: “It's a great location. Our landlords, of course, the Northampton County Club. It's nice to be able to work with them.

“It kind of opened my eyes a lot actually to what a big kind of arts community there is locally.

“I don't know if people know, there's about 17 artist studios in the county club building. And of course, Lumiere Arts just around the corner as well.

“With our passion for music and wanting to kind of bring a little bit more of a diverse mix of genres to the public, it feels nice to be part of that wider community.”

Noir is open from 11.30am to 11pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and from 11.30am to 1am on Fridays and Saturdays.

The bar will also host wine tastings, an Open Mic and its Jazz Café, alongside further music events.

Visitors who have already been have dubbed the venue ‘sexy’.