Also, in case you're wondering: egg salad on wheat, toasted, double chocolate, black coffee.

Well, Tim Horton's is a Canadian chain so it's the Canadians who are the geniuses then. We have them like you people have StarBucks...except it's cheaper.

I knew New Yorkers couldn't be that brilliant. Canada is the new hotness.

Yeah, I was gonna say that this is all Canada's doing. The Tim Horton's in Southern New England are relatively new - they bought out a pre-existing chain called Bess Eaton, which had a lot of quirky charm, such as having Bible verses on the styrofoam coffee cups. Bess Eaton had no sandwiches, and crappy donuts, but their coffee was better than Dunkin's. Tim Horton's seems good, but can't give Dunkin much of a run for its money in New England.

Ahh, I remember that question when I ordered a sandwich in southern Ontario, "What kind of donut do you want with your sandwich?" My initial thought was "Wow, these Canadians are hardcore." Then I thought, a donut with my sandwich sounds pretty good. Maybe a sour cream donut.

I am ever searching for a key to knowing which Tim Horton's carry Nanaimo bars. I have found them in Southern Ontario and Western New York, but not with consistency.

I never understood why my Canadian friends back in my Quaker days worshipped at the altar of Tim Horton's. Till I went to one.

But then, I realized how utterly genius our neighbors up north were when someone introduced me to ... poutine.

I love, love, love the pooters (the word I use to refer to poutine). The Timmer's isn't as good anymore, the Wendy's chain bought out the corporation and it's been going downhill since then. I miss their peach juice....

Yep, Timmy Ho's is an institution in the Great White North, one which you disparage at your peril. Years ago a neighbour of mine was giving me a ride to the SkyTrain (Vancouver subway), and stopped in for his morning coffee. When I declined his offer to grab me one he looked at me in horror. "You don't like Timmy's ?!?!? What are you, some kind of COMMUNIST?!?!?!?!?!?" He never looked at me the same again. (I like Timmy's fine, although their insistence that they be the ones to add cream and sugar is kind of irritating. I just rarely drink coffee in the morning.)

Also, they make a damned fine sandwich. And now that there's one in the Vancouver Airport, reasonably good, not ludicrously expensive food for the plane is finally possible.

I've lived in Canada for almost three years now, and still don't understand the appeal of Timmy's. Their coffee tastes like crap to me (although it's cheap, which is always good) and the doughnuts aren't all that great either. There's definitely a split in my office, but us expats constitute the majority so coffee runs come from Second Cup instead.

Also, I saw their doughnuts for sale at Tescos in Dublin, Ireland not so long back, and almost fell over. They get around!

Well, if you want proselytizing, In'n'Out still puts the numbers of bible chapters on their wrappers and cups.