For the first time in the coffee-and-doughnut giant’s near 50-year history, Tim Hortons is creating a new roast. In a half-century of existence, the iconic Canadian company has added doughnut holes (Timbits!), muffins, croissants, tea, biscuits, cookies, rolls, Danishes, bagels, espresso drinks, chili, breakfast sandwiches, Cold Stone Creamery ice cream and most recently frozen lemonade—but its coffee has never been augmented or altered (which is as impressive as it is dull). The new brew is a bolder, darker version of Timmies’ standard blend made from South American beans rather than their standard Arabica beans. Although the coffee, which is called the Tim Hortons Partnership Blend (it was developed with a German nonprofit organization that supports fair-trade coffee farming), won’t be sold fresh at the franchise’s locations just yet, grounds are available in a 343-gram bag for $7.69.
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Beloved Riverdale hangout Rooster Coffee House has a second location
(Image: Rooster Coffee House)
The east-end neighbourhood café cherished for its Loïc Gourmet sandwiches, goodies from Café Jules Patisserie and Pilot Coffee Roasters (formerly Te Aro) espresso opened a second shop on King Street East near Parliament Avenue yesterday. The new spot is using the same Pilot espresso beans as the original location, but serving sandwiches and salads from Cinq catering. George Brown students and Corktown condo-dwellers are clearly excited: by 10 a.m. there already appeared to be line-ups stretching around the block.
Rooster Coffee House, 333 King St. E., roostercoffeehouse.com, @Roostercoffee
A posh new coffee house opens in the Financial District
(Image: TJ Tindale)
Dineen Coffee Co. is bringing a little coffee cred to the downtown core, an area otherwise dominated by Starbucks and Tim Hortons. The new espresso shop in the historic Dineen building at Yonge and Temperance is considerably larger and more upscale than most other indie shops in the city.
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Starbucks is renaming its Blonde Roast to sound more Canadian
As part of its never-ending quest to lure coffee drinkers away from Timmies, Starbucks has launched a campaign to find a more Canadian name for its Blonde Roast. After canvassing the country for suggestions, the company has announced the three finalists, all of which sound like titles for cancelled CBC pilots: True North, Aurora Borealis and Kanosak, from the Inuit for gold. (You can vote for your favourite here.) But we have to wonder: what’s wrong with, well, “Blonde Roast?”
Coming Soon to Queen East: The Pink Grapefruit, a health-focused grab-and-go café
(Images: Courtesy Pink Grapefruit)
The Pink Grapefruit, 106 Queen St. E.
The Dish Holiday Gift Guide: 12 last-minute finds for food lovers
Buying gifts for foodies gives you an excuse to actually purchase some of the fancy ingredients and beautiful tools you’ve spent the rest of the year lusting after. And even though you have to give them away, there’s a good chance the recipient will invite you for a taste of the finished results. Below, we’ve rounded together 12 perfect last-minute presents—from a killer bottle of bourbon to a killer night out—for the fellow food fanatics on your list.
The List: 10 things physician, undersea explorer and author Joe MacInnis can’t live without
1 | My customized hard hat
I co-led an expedition to the Titanic in 1991. Everyone on board needed a hard hat, so I decided as long as I’m going to wear this bloody thing I might as well add some zip to it. I had three flags painted on it: Russian, American and Canadian, representing the three countries on
that dive.
2 | My Norco
It’s old and heavy—the Model-T of mountain bikes. I cycle everywhere, so I need a bike that can take the punishment.
3 | My Red-Zone man purse
In the places I work, you have to be prepared for emergencies. This bag has everything I need in case disaster strikes: first-aid kit, Leatherman, water, stuff like that.
4 | My anchor
I inherited this chain link from the HMS Bounty from my first mentor at National Geographic, Edwin Link. It was given to him by Louis Marden, who discovered the wreck
in 1957.
5 | My indestructible Rolex
In 1968, I worked for the U.S. Navy’s Sealab III project, studying how deep under the ocean people could work. Rolex gave me a prototype Sea-Dweller diving watch. Five years ago I lent it to my friend, the astronaut Dave Williams, and it circled the earth with him. Otherwise, it has never left my wrist.
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6 | My flag
I used this flag on my Arctic expeditions. I led 10 over a period of 13 years to learn how to dive safely under the polar ice pack. It was dangerous work. The flag also came on my latest expedition—the deepest solo dive ever—in the Western Pacific with James Cameron.
The usual breakfast and lunch fare at Timmies will now set customers back an extra five to 20 cents to account for increased operating costs (mercifully, it’s suspected that coffee products haven’t been affected). Things have been shaky for the Canadian favourite as of late, with declines in store traffic, an ongoing search for a new CEO and that pesky drought poised to drive up food prices across the industry. We imagine its executives are stress-eating Timbits by the dozen right now. [Toronto Star]
Introducing: The Arrow Café, Dundas West’s newest coffee and ice cream shop
(Image: Susan Keefe)
Before it was The Arrow Café, 1164 Dundas St. W. was an accountant’s office. But when childhood friends Robin Eley, Owais Rafiq and Eli Bach, who pooled their resources to open the new coffee and ice cream shop, pulled up the carpet, they uncovered a logo on the floor. They traced it back to The Arrow, a newspaper which was printed on the cafe’s premises 60 years ago. Enamoured with this piece of local history, Eley, Rafiq and Bach decided to adopt the insignia and name as their own.
Introducing: Indian Rice Factory Chai Bar, a new offshoot of the Annex institution (with a great patio)
(Image: Susan Keefe)
The Indian Rice Factory has been a fixture in the Annex for over 43 years. Earlier this month, owners Aman Patel and his wife Deepa opened the Indian Rice Factory Chai Bar as an extension of their existing business. Located just steps from the restaurant’s long-standing Dupont Street location, the grab-and-go café is operated out of a quaint wooden barn connected to the restaurant. Offering a variety of coffees, teas, pastries and a pared-down lunch menu, the Chai Bar is intended to cater to a hurried lunch crowd.
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Tim Hortons starting to see declining in-store traffic
(Image: Mike Rychlik from the Torontolife.com Flickr pool)
It looks like there really is a limit to how much coffee and doughnuts the Canadian populace can take: shares of Tim Hortons Inc. have been downgraded from “neutral” to “sell” today by a Goldman Sachs analyst over concerns that declining restaurant traffic could be an early indicator that the Canadian market is getting saturated. The loss of traffic was apparently offset somewhat by higher average prices, perhaps a result of the changes it made earlier this year in cup sizing. To move back into a favourable position, according to Goldman, the company would need to accelerate expansion in non-Canadian markets, grow in new areas (such as single-cup servings like Keurig’s K-cups), improve same-store sales and appoint a new CEO already. [Financial Post]
Ever wonder why Tim Hortons coffee tastes like that? A behind-the-scenes tour of their roasting plant
(Images: Karolyne Ellacott)
We’re under no illusions that most Dish readers would rate Tim Hortons coffee up there with what one might expect from, say, a Sam James or Te Aro establishment. But when we were offered the chance to check out their previously closed-to-the-public Ancaster coffee plant, we simply couldn’t resist peeking inside the belly of the beast. The journey, last week, got off to a swanky start as a clutch of writers piled into a limo and, Timbits in hand, were whisked off to a factory tour and tasting.
Reasons to Love Toronto: No. 21, because CAMH is Queen West’s hottest address
Over the last decade or so, West Queen West has transformed from actually grungy to artfully grungy, but even as designer pooches replaced discarded needles at Trinity Bellwoods Park and used appliance stores turned into boutique coffee bars, one question persisted: what to do about CAMH? Located almost exactly in the middle of the strip, the country’s largest addiction and teaching hospital loomed like a cordoned-off Castle Grayskull—an eyesore and a reminder of archaic attitudes about mental health. An ambitious redevelopment project the province launched in 2006 promised to change all of that, and now we’re finally seeing signs of significant progress: the extension of surrounding streets like Lower Ossington and Fennings onto the CAMH grounds has broken down barriers both figurative and literal; a trinity of new hospital facilities are bright and airy and designed to fit in with other buildings in the neighbourhood; and the Out of This World Café, at the corner of Lower Ossington and Stokes, will open this month and be run by CAMH patients. The goal is to eventually incorporate several independently owned buildings into the landscape. A new apartment complex (set to open this summer) will rent street-level units to restaurants, shops and galleries, just like you see along the rest of the strip, which is exactly the point.
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Attention those not yet caffeinated today: Starbucks is giving out coffee for a quarter
Starbucks, the green mermaid overlord of coffee, is celebrating its 25th anniversary in Canada (see the above video of, ahem, heartwarming Starbucks moments), and to mark the occasion they’re giving out tall coffees for a quarter until 11 a.m. (although some on Twitter are reporting paying upwards of 26 cents). You’re welcome—unless, that is, you prefer a more indie craft form of caffeination, in which case you might just consider stooping to this level “loser shit.” [Starbucks]
Introducing: Sam James Coffee Bar’s new underground outpost in the Path
(Image: Gizelle Lau)
Back in December, we told you about Sam James’ plans to launch a third location in that downtown warren of chain coffee shops, the Path. This Monday, his new Sam James Coffee Bar opened up shop under the Sun Life Financial Building at 150 King Street West, just steps from the St. Andrew subway station, bringing the financial district a rare break from the near-total Starbucks-Timmies-Timothy’s-Second Cup domination. “Until now, people in and around the Path just haven’t had another option,” says James.
