There hasn’t been this much excitement in St. Louis about fried circles of dough since Strange Donuts opened in Maplewood over a year and a half ago.
But Tuesday morning at 6 a.m., just a few blocks from Strange, the first of 40 planned metro area Tim Hortons Café & Bake Shops (and the first west of the Mississippi River) will open its doors at 2750 S. Big Bend, also in Maplewood.
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The first guests—all winners of an online competition–will arrive in three separate limousines. Tina Bryan, VP of Marketing for Tim Hortons, said responses to the “Tim Hortons Biggest Fan” contest were so creative that “a single winner just couldn’t be chosen.”
Eric Sigurdson, president of Show Me Hospitality LLC, is the owner-operator of the metro area franchise units, all slated to be open by late 2020. “Our territory is basically the weather map,” he quipped, which translates to a dozen counties and over 3 million people. Sigurdson says that half the stores will be free-standing buildings of various sizes and the remainder will be kiosk-type units, better suited for hospitals, universities, and office buildings.
(For those on donut watch, the next Tim Hortons will open in the new Reliance Bank at 10401 Clayton, an express café that should to bow in mid-July. A location in Town & Country is pending approval.)
Sigurdson was the local developer for Krispy Kreme for 10 years before selling to a private equity firm in 2006. “I’ve been trying to get Tim Hortons to St. Louis for the last four years,” the native Canadian said. “As they expanded in the U.S. from east to west, I pushed even harder. I didn’t want to wake up one morning with Tim Hortons here and me not doing it.”
The 2000 square foot flagship unit (one of five projected for the St. Louis metro area in 2015) features a 32-seat dining room, a 16-seat patio, and two dedicated drive-through windows that operate 24 hours a day. “We’d have made it bigger if we could,” admitted Sigurdson, “but the site wouldn’t support it.” Fortunately, 72% of Hortons’ business comes from the drive-throughs, where the average order-to-pickup time is 90-120 seconds.
Tim Hortons is iconic chain of restaurants that was founded in 1964 by a Canadian hockey player of the same name. A prominent part of Canadian pop culture, the cafés are known for their special blend of coffee, as well as donuts, muffins, and pastries baked throughout the day in small batches.
There’s a bit of theater in Maplewood, too, as guests can watch pastries and donuts receive a schmear of icing or glaze.
In the last decade, however, Hortons has evolved into more of a café, with a growing emphasis on paninis, soup, chili, wraps, and sandwiches.
The Maplewood store is the first unit to roll out the California Turkey sandwich (smoked turkey, avocado, tomato, spinach, honey dijon) on multigrain ciabbata, as well as the Italiano Grilled Bagel Sandwich (ham, pepperoni, smoked mozz, spinach, red onion, pesto), built on a sundried tomato Asiago bagel that’s (thankfully) thinner and less chewy than most. Both are excellent sandwiches that embody, in fast food parlance, “more crave tastes.” Sandwiches are served individually ($4.79 – $6.49) or with warm, perfectly salted, kettle-cooked potato chips and a medium drink for $2 more.
We’ll also vouch for the Timbits (donut holes in various flavors), especially the salted caramel and the chocolate glazed varieties (“the best tasting chocolate donut I’ve ever had” according to one aficionado). Full-size donuts are $.99 each and $8.99 per dozen.
Tim Hortons sells over two billion cups of coffee every year, in both a regular and dark roast, and company tasters sample 75,000 cups of coffee annually to maintain quality. We found the dark roast to be “intense but smooth drinking, with no bitterness,” just as Sigurdson claimed. No easy feat. Popular hot weather drinks are the Iced Mocha Latte, Frozen Hot Chocolate, and Iced Cappuccino, all available in three sizes.
When asked to predict the busiest hour of the day, Sigurdson said, “we’re an all-day business, powered by coffee. We catch a lot a fish in the early morning but there’s a lot more good fishing later in the day.”
Tim Hortons Café & Bake Shop
2750 S. Big Bend
Maplewood
314-833-6130
Cafe and two drive-through windows, both open 24 hours
On Facebook: TimHortonsSTL
On Twitter: @timhortonsstl
