When they started looking for a second Ruby Rae’s after opening Newcastle in 2025, they found the former Church of St John the Evangelist on Micklegate in York.

It is a Grade II* listed building with parts dating back to the early 12th century, and since August 2026 its latest chapter has involved live Country music, line dancing and late nights.

For a Nashville-inspired Country bar, the setting could hardly have been more fitting.

A LITTLE RYMAN IN YORK

The Ryman began life as the Union Gospel Tabernacle in 1892 before becoming home to the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to 1974. Its church origins are what gave it the nickname the Mother Church of Country Music.

Saunders and Cooke had already visited Nashville and taken inspiration from the Ryman before the York site appeared. Finding a former church for their second venue gave that influence a real connection to the building rather than something added afterwards.

Saunders has described the York venue as their “own little Ryman.”

There is a neat symmetry to it. One old church became one of the most important rooms in Country music; another now has Country bands, dancers and drinkers filling it on a weekend in Yorkshire.

It is not Nashville, and it does not need to be.

COUNTRY YOU CAN ACTUALLY JOIN IN WITH

Ruby Rae’s York is only the second venue in the business, after Newcastle opened in 2025.

The founders say Newcastle built a strong Country community and welcomed almost 20 artists from Nashville. York takes the same basic idea and gives it a much older roof.

The former church has had new flooring installed with line dancing in mind, alongside work to the stage, DJ booth and bar. Live Country music is part of the regular offer, and the venue currently opens Thursday through Sunday, with Friday and Saturday nights running until 3am.

That combination gives Ruby Rae’s more to work with than Country-themed décor alone.

There is a stage to gather around, a dancefloor to use and a reason to come back when somebody different is playing. If York develops the same kind of regular crowd the founders talk about in Newcastle, the room has every chance of becoming somewhere people use rather than somewhere they simply visit once.

NINE CENTURIES UNDER THE DANCEFLOOR

The building has had a long life before anyone turned up in cowboy boots.

During conversion work in 2004, archaeologists recorded medieval burials, brick burial vaults and disarticulated human bone beneath the site.

The former church has also survived medieval alterations, a partial tower collapse, Victorian restoration and later periods as an architectural institute, arts centre and hospitality venue.

Now it has line dancing.

There is something rather good about that history continuing instead of the building being frozen in one period of its life. Ruby Rae’s has not erased what was there before; the age and character of the place are part of what makes the York venue interesting.

A COUNTRY BAR WITH A STORY OF ITS OWN

Nashville influence can go wrong quickly when it is reduced to props and borrowed language.

Ruby Rae’s York has something sturdier underneath it.

The founders genuinely took inspiration from the Ryman. The Ryman genuinely began as a church. The York venue genuinely spent centuries as one too.

That connection gives the Country side of the place a reason to be there without pretending Micklegate is Broadway.

York supplies the old stone, the history and the setting. Ruby Rae’s supplies the bands, the dancefloor and the late nights.

That is a pretty decent use for an old church.

RUBY RAE’S YORK — GOOD TO KNOW

Where: 2 Micklegate, York, YO1 6JG

Open: Thursday–Sunday; currently until 3am on Friday and Saturday

What: Live Country music, line dancing and Nashville-inspired bar