Timmies rolls out full-service location on MRU campus
Bryan Weismiller
Publishing Editor
Some say the first cup is the deepest.
The first sip, the sweetest.
While Quebec students rallied against tuition hikes and B.C. researchers refined a treatment for Alzheimer’s, Mount Royal University members lined up for a different cause: Tim Hortons.
Well, drink up MRU — the full-service location has finally opened on campus.
Forever taunted by the Other university’s twin Timmies, Mount Royal students pined for crusty sandwiches, saucy soups and frozen coffee treats.
It hasn’t come easy.
Promises were broken, feelings hurt. Meanwhile, bellies rumbled.
As it turns out, expanding a franchise just isn’t done over a cup of coffee. Sodexo, Mount Royal’s on-campus food service provider, had several legal hurdles to hop before any ribbons could be cut.
“It’s been a long road,” said Brent Mann, Sodexo general manager. Mann said opening a fully operational Tims was his top priority after starting his position three years ago. Many students have called for more food alternatives and expanded payment options that include debit and gift cards.
Last spring, a Facebook page titled “Petition to Improve Mount Royal University’s Tim Hortons,” attracted more than 700 members by advocating for a full-service location.
The new location offers such amenities. However, the project has been delayed several times.
Construction was set to begin last summer, but that was pushed back by legalities. A contract was awarded on Nov. 1, and it was announced construction would finish in time for the winter semester. That didn’t happen either.
By January, ground was broken and the half-million-dollar project upgrade finally started taking shape.
And then it happened. On March 19, Main Street was forever changed as the school got its long-awaited first taste of full service.
The university’s top brass were on hand for a ribbon-cutting extravaganza, including MRU president David Docherty. A long line snaked into the main hall, as the first 100 people were promised a free medium coffee.
“Some of us remember when Tim Horton was a hockey player who won a Stanley Cup for the Maple Leafs,” Docherty told the crowd
He added: “I know for some of you it’s taken a long time to open, you might have thought it was cruel or unusual punishment.”
The president paused for a few sparse chuckles, before he laughed and admitted bad jokes “before coffee are never a good idea.”