I was always hoping the “Connections” section of the Midtown Lunch forums would work this way… Ladies of Midtown Lunch, were any of you at the Tim Hortons on 50th & 7th Ave. yesterday morning?  There’s a guy who might be looking for you in the forums:

I was in Tim Horton’s this morning —the 50th and 7th location — and was surprised by the very long line. Fortunately, I met a really cool girl in line and we had a laugh about how we were both “office designees” picking up donuts and other items for our colleagues. Stupidly, I did not ask for her number, so if she’s reading this…may I have another chance?

Oh, and speaking of Tim Hortons, I finally got my iced cappuccino yesterday afternoon!

$3.50 for a pretty large medium, the service at the 50th Street and 7th Ave. location is still pretty horrendous… but it was worth the wait. Just as good as I remember from Montreal. A warning though: it’s a machine made, super sweet, icy drink. Much more like a watery frappe, than a respectable coffee drink. The good thing is, it’s already made so once you order it only takes a few seconds for them to get it for you (and they can’t screw up the milk/sugar/coffee ratio.) It’s already a perfectly concocted cup of liquid crack. (Sweet sweet crack.)

As predicted, the food at Tim Horton’s leaves a little to be desired, and it sounds like all the locations are still having service issues (which is understandable considering that all their employees worked at Dunkin Donuts as of last Friday.) Lunch’er “Sir-eats-a-lot” had this to say:

Checked out the Tim Horton’s on 42nd and Madison. The lady who took my order wasn’t aware that the combo meal involved a side order, despite the large sign behind her indicating as much. The iced coffee (special request, paid extra for it) was spot on. Sandwiches were nothing special, the donuts are clearly why you go here. I had a good but diabetically-sweet cruller, though my friend ordered a boston cream which lost its icing in the bag… AND HAD NO CREAM IN IT. Opening jitters being what they are, we let it slide.

Back to more important issues… can Midtown Lunch help this guy get a date!

If you’re not sick of the whole Tim Horton’s thing yet, read on! (If you are than clearly you haven’t tried their iced cappuccino, which I probably should have explained is more like a frappe or icy milkshake than a straight up coffee drink.)  Unscientific polls were conducted all over Midtown yesterday, pitting timbits (Tim Hortons’ version of the doughnut hole) against Dunkin Donuts’ munchkins- and the results were mixed.  The New York Daily News scored it 5 to 4 in favor of Tim Hortons, while TONY’s feed blog had it 11 to 5 (!) in favor of the almighty munchkin.  Gothamist decided against polling, and just declared the timbit the winner.

So that solves the “timbit” mystery, but what’s all this about “double double”?

Apparently Tim Hortons has taken a page from the In N Out Burger playbook, and has a special way of ordering coffee.  Lunch’er “banbirino” clears it up for us in the comments:

“In Canada, we call it Timmy Ho’s. Or Timmy’s. Look forward to the nickname it gets down there. A ‘regular’ is one cream and one sugar. A double double is two creams and two sugars in your coffee. Similarly, if you ask for a triple triple, you’ll get three servings of cream and sugar. I’ve never heard of anyone getting a quadruple quadruple – in any case that would just be nasty.”

Sadly I didn’t get a chance to use that lingo today. All I wanted was my iced cappuccino- but the machine at the 50th Street and 7th Ave. location was “out of order”. And the free ice cream truck I posted about earlier had already left for the day. All in all a complete post lunch failure.

I guess there is always tomorrow.

Related:
Tim Hortons Day Update: Dunkin Donuts Not Going Down Without a Fight
BLOCKBUSTER: Tim Hortons Set to Invade New York City

“Hilarious, all the Dunkin people swarming the streets (near 50th and 7th) with signs pointing to the nearest Dunkin with $1 off coupons.”

Dunkin might have made a huge miscalculation with these coupons… $1 off is no match for a free coffee.  And that’s not all Tim Hortons is offering according to lunch’er Meyekull:

In front of 42nd St Tim Horton’s between Vanderbilt and Madison, I was given 2 coupons for free small coffee (hot, iced, latte, cappuccino) valid till 7/31. Also, they are promoting their Tim Card (gift card). “Buy a $20 card before 7/20 and get $27.50 value.” This represents a future 27.2% discount. Makes sense to stock up on them if you are a T.H. fan.

And according to steveroller, the battlefield extends to the southern reaches of Midtown:

“The War of 1812 #2 is also heating up down by 34th and 8th from what I saw on my way to work this morning. Like FileEditView and MWinston saw, lots of Dunkin dollar off coupons being passed out.”

Oh and in case anyone has noticed yet from the comments above, there seems to be free coffee available at every location VIA COUPONS that are good until the end of the month, despite the PR person insisting there would only be free coffee at Penn Station. (Can you believe a press release would be misleading!?!)

I think I’m going to wait for the dust to settle (or at least wait until I hear their iced cappucinos are up to par) before heading anywhere near a new Tim Hortons location.  Anybody give it a test run this morning?

Related:
BLOCKBUSTER: Tim Hortons Set to Invade New York City (Link includes complete list of NYC Tim Hortons locations)

Although recently they’ve been really good about it, I’ve given the Riese Company a lot of crap over the years for not participating in various free food promotions at some of their Midtown franchises.  Well after reading this news on the NRN Website I’m here to say I TAKE IT ALL BACK:

The Riese Organization, a longtime multi-concept franchisee in New York City, is converting all 13 of its Dunkin’ Donuts stores to the Tim Hortons brand… Riese said he plans to close the Dunkin’ locations on Friday and reopen the stores July 13 under the Tim Hortons banner.

According to a different article on NRN, Tim Hortons also has cut a deal to co-brand three Manhattan locations of Cold Stone Creamery with Tim Hortons (including the Times Square location on 42nd btw. 7+8th), which will hopefully clear the way for items like  “muffin ‘bowls’ (i.e., with the tops removed) to serve ice cream in, ice cream-based coffee drinks or donut piece mix-ins for the ice cream as potential exclusive menu items at the co-branded locations.” My lord.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Tim Hortons, it is basically the Canadian version of Dunkin Donuts started by a famous hockey player named Tim Horton (natch). I’ve only had it once (on a road trip to Montreal) and I can’t speak for their doughnuts- but based on their iced cappuccino alone I am pretty excited to welcome Tim Hortons to Midtown with open arms! It is like ice cold crack in a cup, and I will probably drink one every day between now and the end of the summer.

As for why Riese is no longer in business with DD, the original article goes on to note that Dunkin Donuts claims to have terminated their contract due to “violated health and safety regulations”. (Not a surpise to anybody who has walked into a Tad’s Steak.) I don’t care either way… I will take a dirty Tim Hortons over no Tim Hortons any day of the week. As long as they don’t screw up those iced cappuccinos.

A list of all Riese owned Dunkin Donuts locations (which will presumably become Tim Hortons locations on Monday) is after the jump.

Midtown Locations:

• 761 7th Avenue @ 50th St. 212-767-8347
• 152 West 34th Street bet. 6th & 7th Ave. 212-630-0319
• 47 East 42nd St. bet. Park & Madison Ave., 212-681-8501
• Penn Station, LIRR Level, 212-630-0314
• Madison Square Garden, Taxi Ramp. 212-594-0204

Other Locations:

• 48 New Street @ Wall St., 212-483-8319
• 50 Fulton Street @ Cliff St. 212-732-6551
• 2547 Broadway @ 94th St., 212-316-2915
• 1276 Lexington Avenue @ 86th St., 212-339-8868
• 451 Fulton Street, Brooklyn. 718-237-9346
• 22 Court Street, Brooklyn. 718-624-1107