They were looking for a “unifying place” to experience women’s sport with its fans, but it did not exist. The solution, for Catherine D. Lapointe and Caroline Côté? Create their own.
Published at 5:00 a.m.
This is how the idea of Nadia was born, a Montreal restaurant whose vocation will be to disseminate the prowess of female athletes from here and elsewhere, from Victory to the Montreal Roses and everything in between.
“It comes from a common need of many people,” Catherine D. Lapointe tells us, in an interview with The Press in a café in Plateau Mont-Royal.
This need was confirmed to them during their first “nomadic” event, on November 30, at the Pit Caribou pub, where the two women in the restaurant industry have worked for years. They broadcast the first match of the Victory season, in the Professional Women’s Hockey League (LPHF), which the team won in a shootout.
“We had a great response! underlines Caroline Côté, sitting next to her partner. People were there. And we had the best match we could have. »
Their initiative is part of the real rise of women’s professional sport around the world, and here at home. But this rise, until now, has not found its echo in the restaurant landscape in Quebec.
“This project, for me, is really an opportunity to compensate for that, and to offer it to others,” Caroline Côté tells us. This accessibility, this easy, welcoming, warm place, where you can go and be inspired by women. »
There are so many inspiring athletes with incredible performances.
Caroline Cote
Their objective is to have found a fixed location by 2025. “We are visiting the premises! », says Catherine. In the meantime, they will organize other nomadic broadcasts, in particular to highlight the needs of amateurs, to “build the community” by “spreading the message”, and to help with financing.
“Our market research is: we try it, we do it,” she adds.
Nadia Comaneci, “The Bridge” Between Generations
Why Nadia? The name of the project is inspired by that of Nadia Comaneci, a great Romanian star of the Montreal Olympic Games in 1976.
“I was born in the 1980s,” says Catherine D. Lapointe. I didn’t experience the Montreal Games while being there, but I grew up with the memory [de Comaneci]. There is such a powerful legacy from his passing. »
PHOTO PIERRE MCCANN, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Nadia Comaneci at the 1976 Montreal Olympics
Thus, the symbol of Nadia Comaneci becomes “a bridge” between the generation who saw her perform in Montreal and the one who lives only by this “collective memory”.
Our interlocutor was a gymnast in her youth. For her, it is a “complete sport”, which pushes its athletes to demonstrate “flexibility”, “endurance”, “strength”. In addition, Comaneci’s journey is a story of “resilience,” she believes.
Like that of many of the current athletes, whom the two businesswomen want to promote in their establishment.
“The place of women in a professional environment is often underestimated,” explains Catherine D. Lapointe. It’s about thinking about that first, while making a nod to Montreal’s sporting history. In addition, it will be the jubilee [des Jeux de Montréal] in 2026. »
“A spinning wheel”
The two great sports fans “consume” the existing sports bar offering. But they wanted “to have access to something else”.
For their “guinguette”, they want a “less aggressive” environment, a space of “communion” and “sharing”, which does not feel obliged to bathe in alcohol.
“It won’t be peaceful! assures Caroline. It’s going to be festive all the same. There will be great explosions of energy. But we are looking for a different atmosphere, a little more inclusive. »
They would like to become the “headquarters” of sports, youth or recreational teams, “who want to gather somewhere”. A space imbued with “openness” and “kindness”, as for a mother who has just given birth, for example, and “who must face her postpartum period with her baby in a shell”.
It’s hard to see yourself saying to him: “We’re sorry, you’re with a minor.”
Catherine D. Lapointe
The two collaborators aim for a “social economy” model, supported by “feminist values”, “democratic governance” and “transparent management”. They would like to be able to offer working conditions worthy of the name, which we know are difficult to find in the restaurant industry.
“As you get older, if your insurance is able to cover support stockings or a pair of work shoes… illustrates Catherine, giggling. You’re on your feet 10 hours a day! […] We know it’s part of the game, but does it need to be so rudimentary in certain aspects? »
The parallel with the conditions of professional sportswomen, still light years away from what is offered to their male counterparts, comes up naturally in the conversation. Among other things because the two entrepreneurs in front of us have made service their career. Catherine D. Lapointe will soon be at her 25the year of work in this field.
“The Nadia naturally landed on something that I wanted to share,” she says.
And the two partners do not only intend to benefit from the rise in popularity of women’s sport: they also want to contribute to it, within their means.
“If we promote women’s sport, we want to be able to redistribute this money through organizations and athletes,” submits Catherine D. Lapointe. […] It’s a wheel that turns. »
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