I’ve eaten at Tim’s a lot these past two weeks for breakfast. It’s not my first choice, unfortunately it often winds up being my only option in a lot of the places I find myself in. Smaller, local places either don’t open early enough or there literally isn’t one on my route around breakfast time. It also allows me a consistent (but very mid) breakfast, a spot to charge my phone and a pre-walk washroom break.
Thankfully I’ve been able to have a lot of great, non-chain lunches and dinners.
With that out of the way (oh, also, fuck JK Rowling) I’ve been able to make some observations.
Every Tim’s has a gaggle of older men who just kind grunt at each other when one makes a quip about a current event (often political). They gather really early. I’m usually at Tim’s by 6am, the gaggle is fully formed by this point. I’ve witnessed the formation of the gaggle precisely once and it was majestic.
It starts with two people sitting at separate tables. Then one person joins one of the two tables. These two people are close to each other (neighbours, cousins, old friends etc.)
The odd man out will join the group by making a comment on something they’re talking about and eventually join to form the gaggle. Most gaggles are 4-6 men. This gaggle is usually in its final form before 6, which is why it was such a rare occurrence for me to witness it.
Regulars at Tim’s also follow a pretty common pattern. You won’t see all of these types at every Tim’s, but you can pretty easily collect them all.
- The gruff man who orders a coffee “just a black coffee”, when asked what he wants in it “milk” or “cream” if they’re fancier. This person always pays in coins, always precise.
- The person (in the gaggle) who complains about being tracked (or something to this effect) but collects Tim’s Rewards points
- The loveable regular who is known by name and people leave their stations to personally greet
- The couple (or gaggle member) who will talk about how good the coffee is at this specific Tim’s location or compare it to McDonald’s
- The regular and employee who some kind of daily, sexually charged (but harmless) banter
This is a non-exhaustive list. A similar thing could be written about local pubs, but it’d be less interesting.