Military heritage, community and comfort food merge at The Mess Tent
This articles appears in the Fall 2024 edition of The Advisor.
The WEOC National Loan Program provides funding to Canadian women entrepreneurs to start and grow successful businesses.
Change has been a constant for Christine McNeil throughout her life. Originally from Newfoundland and Labrador, Christine grew up in a military family, moving every four years for new postings—a practice that’s played out in her own career working on and off for the military. So when she decided to change course completely and open a restaurant in 2024, she did it without hesitation: “Changing course is not hard for me.”
In 2022, McNeil founded the Mess Tent, a military-themed poutinerie located in Newfoundland and Labrador’s Lower Island Cove. The name of the restaurant refers to a tent set up for soldiers to eat in when they are in the field. The focus on military history is not only personal to McNeil; it is intimately linked with the history of the province. Before 1949, Newfoundland and Labrador belonged to Britain, meaning many citizens fought for Britain in the First and Second World Wars. McNeil says she sees traces of this legacy in her community: “Every family here has been touched by the military,” she says. “You can go into any house and you’ll see pictures of family members in the military.”
The idea for the business came to her when she enrolled in the Culinary Arts program at Academy Canada in St. John’s in 2022. She saw it as a way to channel her love of cooking into something that could foster a sense of community among fellow veterans, who she says “often kept to themselves” because of a lack of understanding among civilians about their experiences. As for the choice to focus on poutine, McNeil says she wanted to offer something new to the food scene in Lower Island Cove, where there were only a handful of restaurants.
McNeil was forced to put her plan on hold when she received a cancer diagnosis halfway through her program. While she was undergoing chemotherapy, McNeil took the time between sessions to keep developing her business plan. Months later, once she recovered, she started looking for funders, which presented a whole new set of challenges.
While many funders told her she had a solid business plan and credit rating, her apparent lack of business experience was often cited as a problem: “I was told, ‘We’d love to fund you, but we can’t because you’ve never had a business before.’” McNeill, who is 60, adds her age was also pointed out as a problem. Funders said: “Why do you want to start a business? You’ve had a great life. Why don’t you retire?” Despite that, McNeil says she only became more determined to make the business happen.
McNeil learned about a new funding pathway through Carolyn Wakeham, the director of programming and evaluation at the Newfoundland and Labrador Organization of Women Entrepreneurs (NLOWE), whom she had met at a entrepreneurs’ bootcamp event in 2019.
When she reached out to Wakeham after starting her business in 2022, she learned about the WEOC National Loan Program, which offers loans of up to $50,000 to women-owned and women-majority businesses to launch or expand their businesses. Run by the Women’s Enterprise Organizations of Canada (WEOC), the program adopts an inclusive approach to funding, providing flexible payment terms and wraparound support to recipients. NLOWE is one of seven regional loan fund partners across the country.
Since receiving the loan, McNeil has used the funds to renovate the heritage building she bought to house the restaurant—something she says she would not have been able to do without that financial support. And in January 2024, the Mess Tent officially opened its doors.
McNeil says the restaurant has been warmly embraced by her community. While tourists can come to learn about a piece of Newfoundland and Labrador’s history, locals can see their own personal lives reflected in it. She has invited clients to bring photos and souvenirs related to their own connection to the military to display in the restaurant—something she sees as important in keeping the history alive: “A lot of families don’t really talk about [the military] any more, so the history is kind of being forgotten and not spoken about . . . But I hope the public can come in and see photos of their family hanging on the wall and the history behind them.”
While owning the restaurant started off as a personal dream, McNeil sees it as a success to be shared with fellow locals: “It’s something for the community to be proud of and call their own.”
Looking for more?
- Visit Loan Fund Partner PARO Centre for Women’s Enterprise website
- Find out if you are eligible for WEOC National Loan Program funding
- Read the FAQs about the WEOC National Loan Program