FINALIST Atlantic Business Award of Distinction

Creating Wonderland: Entrepreneurial Vision Transforms Town into a Whimsical Tourist Destination for All Ages

In the 80's, when the Sandspit Amusement Park was a major draw to Shediac, young families would flock to the area. Sébastien Després was there, working his first job. It forever shaped his view of his hometown.

"I always imagined Shediac as the capital of tourism of New Brunswick," he said. "It's where people come in the summers to have fun. When I was a kid, it was only for children, and as a businessperson, I could kind of analyze that that's not quite what Shediac needs."

As an adult, Sébastien and his wife, Heather Wright, have created "Shediac Wonderland." They are actively working to evolve Shediac as a pilgrimage for fun, for all ages.

"That's really our vision, to make Shediac this space where tourists and locals — Moncton locals, Riverview locals, Salsibury locals — all get together in Shediac to kind of reconnect with others," Sébastien said. "And learn to be together, to have fun together."

So far, "Shediac Wonderland" is made up of five businesses: Le Griffon, a bed and breakfast; Le Morque-Tortue, Canada's first BBQ, and game bistro;" Adorable Chocolat,  a chocolatier; the Neptune, and a drive-in theatre with one of Atlantic Canada's largest offset smoker; and Morse et Marteaux BBQ,  a beachside canteen. The names and aesthetics of all the businesses are modelled off the beloved stories of “Alice in Wonderland,” and “Through the Looking Glass.”

"We're inviting people from all of Canada, all over the world, to come and have fun in our wonderland,” Sébastien said.

Sébastien’s own path to serial entrepreneurship is as eventful as Alice's adventures through wonderland. As a teenager, he owned a sailing rental shop and school that was ruined by a hurricane, he earned two master's degrees and a Phd, taught at universities, worked in insurance, was mayor of a town in Newfoundland, and started a music school with his wife.

The list of experiences all compound to help with his current businesses, but his initial dive into the restaurant business still confounded his wife.

"'How do you know how to run a restaurant?'" she said to him. "I told her, 'I worked for a great chef as a kid, and I learned from him everything I need to know to run a kitchen. I feel I could do this.'"

So, they bought the building and began shaping the business, and their vision. They landed on a “boardgame bistro,” with over 5,000 board games, mostly for adults, with the upside-down and backwards aesthetic of Victorian England through Lewis Carol’s eyes.

Walls of clocks and teacups line the walls. There are strangely themed rooms, and odd trinkets scattered throughout.

"It's probably the most bizarre place most people have eaten at, but given the quality of the food produced there, even the clients that aren't into funky places — absolutely weird places — they forgive us, and they still come,” Sébastien said.

The atmosphere is fun and whimsical, but the food is serious business.

"The first year was rough,” Sébastien said. “But it caught on. And we won quite a few prizes in the next few years, and got recognized as the, or one of the best places to eat in Shediac."

The menu is essentially made up of Sébastien’s favourite food, with a focus on presenting “great food simply.”

"That approach influences everything we do,” he said. “We look for local tradition. We looked to really highlight the special parts about Shediac, the special parts about south-eastern New Brunswick, the special parts about Atlantic Canada. So, when we're creating our products, we really focus on what makes that product special."

They apply the same approach to Adorable Chocolate, which they always thought deserved more traffic than it received.

"That should be a booming business, given the quality of what's offered there, given what is produced there,” Sébastien and Heather thought. “But there was no food service. So, we said, 'if we pair a great food service with what's already being done ... we'll manage to grow the business exponentially.’ Which is what we did, and it did work.”

Next was the Neptune Drive-In Theatre, which had been a beloved asset of Shediac for decades, but had been closed for years before the pair narrowed their sights on it. But, true to form, Sébastien and Heather, needed a true differentiator for the business.

"I concluded that Texas style with a gigantic offset smoker would be a natural fit for it,” Sébastien said. “Because it's a huge wide-open field. So, making barbecue there was a natural extension."

Like everything in “Wonderland,” the focus is on simplicity, and authenticity.

“It's simply wood,” Sébastien said. “There's no propane assist, there's no electric assist. There's no cheating. It's only true, real barbeque — focused on what's authentic. So, we'll have twenty-one hour-long cooks, where we're just putting wood on a fire.”

Now, with the smell of delicious smoked meat in the air, a new problem arose.

“I needed a place where we could sell the meat every day of the week as well,” he said. “So, I put in a bid for the east canteen at Parlee Beach, and I was awarded the bid.”

Both the Neptune and the Morse et Marteaux BBQ had their first year of operation and are off to a good start. But as serial entrepreneurs, Sébastien and Heather know it is going to take a bit of time to get the businesses fully up to speed.

“As an entrepreneur. he is in the business of risk,” Marc-André Thériault, a project analyst at CBDC Westmorland Albert said. "He's a visionary. He's very aggressive, and he's taking chances, and putting his money where his mouth is. And he sees a vision and a goal, and it's working out for him. He's definitely changed the landscape a bit, of the town.”

The local Community Business Development Corporation has seen the progress first-hand.

"I first used the CBDCs services when I was still in my teens,” Sébastien said. “I learned how rich a resource they were. And ever since, I've really been a proponent of their services. “

Aside from start-up loans, an emergency Covid loan, and being involved in different programs, like one aimed at improving the food tourism industry of the town, Sébastien says that he sees his CBDC as consultants he can turn to at any time.

"The best entrepreneurs are successful not because they say, 'yes,' they're successful because they learn to say, 'no,'” Sébastien said. "I'm a man of ideas, I'll have 100,000 ideas, in a course of a given year, and I'd say that 99.9 percent are bad ideas. Or just not good ideas.”

But when Sébastien knows an idea will work, he goes completely in. One great way to validate an idea, and gain that kind of confidence, is by having trusted experts close-by.

"At the end of the day, as business lenders. We are in the business of risk,” said Marc-André Thériault. “It's finding that balance between getting the money out to the community and doing the economic development, but also, sometimes, saying ‘no.’ We have no interest in putting people in bad loans.”

Sébastien has learned first-hand that CBDCs are primarily in the business of helping entrepreneurs, and communities, grow and succeed. They have become a trusted part of his network.

"I've been lucky enough to create relationships with a number of people at my local CBDC,” he said. “And I don't hesitate to go see them.”