How's This, Eh? We're Finally Getting a Tim Hortons

Canada has a lot of things Texans don't, like adequate healthcare, milk that comes in a bag and a football league with a sensible broadcasting schedule. 

One of the most notable omissions on our side of the border is a lack of Tim Hortons locations. The coffee and doughnut cafe chain is an institution in Canada the way that Whataburger is an institution in Texas. People will lay down their very lives to defend its honor.

The Tim Hortons chain has popped up on American soil here and there since the mid-1980s, including two locations in Texas. Now, one has finally found its way to our portion of the state map.

A filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation reveals that Tim Hortons plans to open up shop on State Highway 121 in Coppell.

The new Tim Hortons is expected to start construction in March and take a full year to complete. An opening date has yet to be announced.
Tim Hortons is a Canadian treasure like the beavertail, John Candy and The Kids in the Hall. It's probably best known for the Double-Double coffee, shorthand for two shots of cream and two spoons of sugar in its signature coffee brand. If you've never heard of the brand, you've at least seen a concept of it if you watched the 1992 Saturday Night Live-inspired movie Wayne's World. The Stan Mikita Donuts shop that Wayne and Garth frequent was inspired by Tim Hortons.

Tim Hortons' history goes back to 1964 when hockey legend Tim Horton and his business partner Jim Charade opened the first location in Hamilton, Ontario. Horton died 10 years later in a car crash, leaving control of the company to investor Ron Joyce. Under Joyce's ownership, the chain expanded its locations and menu to include more than just doughnuts and coffee. The menu expanded to lunch items like soups and chili and introduced Canada to the Timbit (the chain's name for a doughnut hole), according to CTV News.

In 1984, Joyce brought the first American Tim Hortons just across the border to Tonawanda, New York. The Wendy's International corporate types took notice of the chain and bought it for $400 million in 1995, taking it public 10 years later on the New York Stock Exchange. The shares jumped from 15–18 cents per share to $27 per share in the span of a year before spinning off as its own separate company.

There are over 4,000 locations across Canada and more than 400 in the U.S., including two in Texas: Houston and Katy. It'll be three when the Coppell location opens in 2025.

Attempts were made to reach a representative of the company but messages were not returned by presstime Friday.