Your hosts
Sébastien Després and Heather Wright
We opened Le Griffon in July 2017, having driven from Newfoundland with two transport trucks full of treasures. It started with this house. Then came the bistro seven doors down, the chocolaterie across from it, and a drive-in we couldn’t bear to let disappear. We kept saying yes.
Heather
Heather grew up in Calgary and came to hospitality by way of the concert hall. She studied violin at the University of British Columbia, then took a master’s in ethnomusicology at Memorial University (her thesis was on women in Highland piping) and a second master’s in viola performance and pedagogy. She played Assistant Principal Second Violin with the Newfoundland Symphony and ran a music studio in Witless Bay with more than 150 students.
She plays viola, violin, piano, flute, and the Highland bagpipes, the last of which she’s careful never to play while guests are sleeping. (She was Alberta’s piping champion in 1998, so the restraint is considerable.)
Today she’s Chief of Production: the pâtisserie, the kitchens, and the chocolaterie all answer to her. If a croissant at Adorable is exactly right, that’s no accident. Séb writes the blueprint; Heather tests whether it feels right from the guest’s chair.
Sébastien
Séb is an Acadian from Cocagne, a short drive up the coast, so Shediac is something of a homecoming. His father, Adrien Després, helped launch Le Bazar Acadien in Cocagne in 1974; the Friday market at the Neptune carries it on.
While still an undergraduate, he ran a sailing school in Bouctouche that grew to a fleet of 24 boats. Then came Memorial University: a master’s in folklore, another in religious studies, doctoral work in anthropology, and nearly a decade teaching anthropology and geography, winning every teaching award open to a sessional instructor, the President’s Award for Outstanding Teaching among them. From 2013 to 2017 he was Mayor of Witless Bay, Newfoundland.
Along the way: an Action Canada Fellowship, a stint as an infantry reservist, a career as a professional stuntman, and five Mardi Gras costume grand prizes on St. John’s George Street, which paid for the graduate degrees. He’s read Lewis Carroll obsessively since the sixth grade. You may have noticed.
He sits on the board of the Greater Shediac Chamber of Commerce, is Vice-Chair of Destination Sud-Est, and chairs Le Foyer de l’imaginaire acadien, which is bringing the Maison Pascal-Poirier, a few steps from Le Griffon, back to life. When a title is required, which isn’t often, he’s the Chief Quest Officer.
And then, the Wonderland
Between them, they have 35 years of university in seven disciplines. Which may explain why the bistro has a library of games and the chocolates have names.
- 2017
- Le Griffon.
- 2018
- Le Moque-Tortue, seven doors down.
- 2023
- Adorable Chocolat, across from the bistro. Morse et Marteaux lights its smoker.
- 2024
- The Neptune Drive-In reopens. Morse et Marteaux takes the east end of Parlee Beach.
- 2026
- The first Shediac Renaissance Faire, sold out almost a month before the gates opened. Witzend opens its kiosk beside the Giant Lobster.
- 2027
- The Mascarade and Afterland join the Faire. WitZuit and Le Pavillon Parlee open at the west end of Parlee Beach.
They call it Shediac Wonderland: a collection of houses, each with its own story, built on the idea that Lewis Carroll is better read as anthropology than as costume. You needn’t have read a word of him to enjoy any of it. But if you have, you’ll find him everywhere, hidden in plain sight.
They have three daughters, one of them named Alice. Yes, that Alice.
Le Griffon
426 Main Street, Shediac, NB E4P 2G4
(506) 532-5412 · info@legriffon.ca
Check-in from 4 to 9pm · Open year-round · Free parking