Born at the Neptune

In 2024, Shediac Wonderland acquired the Neptune Drive-In Theatre.

The Neptune was already a landmark. It had been showing films under the stars since 1965, survived two closures, and carried sixty years of stories in its gravel lot. When the screen went dark again in 2022, the community felt it. A drive-in theatre on the water has a gravitational pull that does not respect the logic of the entertainment industry.

Sébastien and Heather saw more than a cinema. They saw a 350-car lot, a forty-foot screen, a coastal sky, and a canteen that needed to become something worth arriving early for.

The old canteen was gutted. In its place, they built a kitchen around an authentic wood-fired Texas-style smoker. The approach was low and slow: real hardwood, low temperatures, long hours, no shortcuts. Brisket that starts its journey before dawn. Pulled pork that falls apart because it has been given the time to. Ribs with a bark that earns the word.

They called it Morse et Marteaux. The Walrus and the Carpenter, reimagined as a smokehouse. Because in Wonderland, even the food has a backstory.

The Neptune held its soft opening on May 10, 2024. A week later, on May 17, came the grand opening. The lot filled. The screen lit up. The brisket sold out.

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From One Kitchen to Four

A single location was never the plan. Ok, well, it was, and then the plan changed the way plans do when something works.

That same year, Morse et Marteaux became the concessionaire at the East Canteen of Parlee Beach Provincial Park. Steps from the water, serving the same wood-fired BBQ.

The Festival Arena in Shediac followed. Hockey games and tournaments now come with brisket. It is a combination that makes more sense than it has any right to.

Then came Main & Smith, at the corner of Main Street and Smith Street in downtown Shediac. The year-round location. Seven days a week in the summer, weekends through the winter. At the Main & Smith location, classic smoker barbecue is served alongside Atlantic Canadian seafood. Lobster joined the menu. The Smokehouse became the Smokehouse & Lobster Shack. BBQ and seafood in every season. The place where Morse et Marteaux stops being a summer memory and becomes a permanent address.

Four locations. One philosophy. Real wood. Real smoke. No gas assist. No shortcuts. The same commitment to time and temperature whether you are eating beside a hockey rink or watching the sun set over Northumberland Strait.