Dessert for dinner? Noir Bar to open in Richmond

Swan Street Social, the bar above Richmond's Noir restaurant, is no more.

But there's a sugary lining.

On April 8, Noir's owners Peter Roddy and Ebony Vagg will reopen the space upstairs as Noir Bar, serving tricked-up French desserts (including the pictured hedgehog-shaped raspberry and rose vacherin), and digestif cocktails to the sugar-deprived souls of Swan Street.

Collaborating with Roddy will be head pastry chef Jerome Soubeyrand, who has come by way of Britain's Dinner by Heston, and Daniel Boulud in New York, which indicates they're looking to trump the many fro-yo joints currently serving as the area's main source of sweets.

The restaurant downstairs (which has just had a major scrub up), will continue to serve dessert for those who can't face moving upstairs after dinner, and there will likewise be cheese and meat boards and croquettes in the bar, for nutritional balance.

So is high art dessert the new thing? It's too soon to tell, but with Singaporean dessert superstar Janice Wong hinting at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival that she might be back in July, and our own Pierre Roelofs currently teaching his art through intensive workshops, it's definitely a good time to be a candy-fanged sugar bandit in this town.

Noir Bar will open Tue-Sun 5pm-1am, from Wednesday, April 8.

Noir Bar, 175 Swan Street (upstairs), Richmond, 9428 3585, noirrestaurant.com.au