Tim Hortons outlet in Dubai mobbed by Canadian expats

[ElPunto]

Old news but funny.

 

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Sep 20, 2011

 

 

It is not yet 8am but this corner on an otherwise quiet block on Sheikh Zayed Road is packed to the rafters. At a Starbucks coffee shop next door, a lone customer stares vacantly out of the window while staff disconsolately wipe down tables. Less than 20 metres away, there is something of a breakfast party going on in Tim Hortons.

 

The entrance is marked by a cheery red sign in English and Arabic reading "Tim Hortons cafe bake shop", Matthew Clarke opens the door with a flourish right on queue, dressed in a hockey shirt and shorts, and announces: "Come on in, the coffee's fresh."

The 50-year-old Emirates pilot from Canada is not even on the payroll; as a customer on his first visit, he is simply over-excited about having a little taste of home in the land where he now lives.

 

Tim Hortons is to Canadians what the falcon is to the UAE; an intrinsic part of the culture and an inescapable symbol of Canadian life.

 

Founded by the Canadian hockey player Tim Horton in 1964 and with more than 3,600 outlets worldwide, it is impossible to go many blocks in Canada without stumbling on one. There is even an outlet dishing up tasty doughnuts and freshly ground coffee to soldiers at a military base near Kandahar in Afghanistan.

 

Sunday's opening in Dubai was the first of 120 outlets planned for the Middle East, with a coffee shop set to open in Abu Dhabi later this year. And judging from the crowd of about 50 diners and the constant stream of customers threatening to spill out of the front door, the franchise is already poised to be a runaway success.

 

James O'Hearn, who rushed to be the first customer through the doors at 6.55am on Sunday, gushes: "The coffee tasted the same, the sour cream doughnut just as soft and the herb and garlic cream cheese on my bagel was just like I remembered it. But as much as I am happy, I wonder whether this will be one more thing that makes me so comfortable, I end up not going back at all?"

 

Mr Clarke, on his first visit with his wife Nancy, 49, who works for a corporate team-building firm, does not waste time scrutinising the menu and goes straight for his usual, two cinnamon raisin bagels with cream cheese, a steeped tea for him and a medium regular coffee for her. "Tim Hortons is a way of life in Canada," he says. "There is one on every corner at home but the queues go around the block there. It is that good."

 

Every morning at their home in Ontario they had the same ritual: he would drive to the nearest Tim Hortons at 6.30am, pick up hot drinks and bagels for breakfast for themselves and often their neighbours and bring them home.

 

Mrs Clarke takes her first sip of coffee, closes her eyes and breaks into a broad smile: "It tastes exactly the same."

In chorus, the pair chime out the company slogan: "You've always got time for Tim Hortons."

 

Judging from the clientele, they are not the only ones. Despite the brand being reproduced on a mass scale, it seems to inspire more loyalty than competitors such as Starbucks, which has attracted criticism for aggressively driving independent coffee shops out of business.

 

A series of TV ads in Canada show homesick natives hankering for a Tim Hortons and the Canadian author Pierre Berton once wrote it was "the essential Canadian story...a story of success and tragedy, of big dreams and small towns, of old-fashioned values and tough-fisted business, of hard work and of hockey."

 

Fans wax lyrical about the cheap coffee and fresh produce - even in Dubai, prices begin at a lowly Dh7 for a coffee with staff ordered to make fresh pots every 20 minutes while no doughnut stays on the shelf longer than 12 hours.

 

There are slight differences between the UAE offering and its Canadian part; there is no drive-through, nor "everything" bagels.

But the staff have been trained to understand typical orders like a double-double (two creams and two sugars to the uninitiated) and all the favourites are there, like timbits, the middle part of the doughnut smothered in sugary coating and sold for Dh1.

Anthony Lewis, the area manager, looks exhausted. With the outlet open from 6am until 2am, he has been working 16-hour days and says the crowds are constant. After 3pm, it is standing room only

 

http://www.thenational.ae/lifestyle/food/tim-hortons-outlet-in-dubai-mobbed-by-canadian-expats

[Som@li]

was MMA part of the mob?

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

 

Tim Hortons weyba kibreen, high-end franchises iska dhigoyaan, Starbucks iska dhig dhig bilaabeen, with their fancy lattes, mochas, cappuccino suppremes. And it is a bit expensive.

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

felt the same way first time I found this place in columbus lol

http://thefranchisehound.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/dunkin-donuts.jpg

[grasshopper]

Hm, hopefully they do the coffee right unlike the Tim's I tried in NYC where the medium double double was twice as big and sweet...yuck!

[Kool_Kat]

^Americans like their food/beverages bigger, the same thing happened to me in OH, when I ordered a large double double they gave me bakeeri gacanteyda dherer le'eg!

 

GO TIMMY GO!

[Libaax-Sankataabte]

Coolest Timmy out there.

 

I will visit when I go to Dubai Insha Allah.

[Carafaat]

More American franchise formula's. discusting.

[grasshopper]

Kool_Kat;763567 wrote:

^Americans like their food/beverages bigger, the same thing happened to me in OH, when I ordered a large double double they gave me bakeeri gacanteyda dherer le'eg!

I went on my Saturday morning coffee run to Tim Horton's and I got a flyer that the sizes are going up :mad: and they're adding an extra large (who in their right mind will drink that much in one sitting?)

 

This is nuts, I blame the States!

[N.O.R.F]

Recently discovered one in the local mall, Not sure what the fuss is all about though. Costa Coffee, the small Ethiopian joint near my old office or a cup of Turkish coffee at the local cafe ayaa la qaatay.

[AfricaOwn]

N.O.R.F;774827 wrote:

Recently discovered one in the local mall, Not sure what the fuss is all about though. Costa Coffee, the small Ethiopian joint near my old office or a cup of Turkish coffee at the local cafe ayaa la qaatay.

Canadians are just familiar with it since Tim Hortons is in every block in Canada, but the coffee itself isn't that great.