Double Doubles, Timbits and, as of this week, Flatbread Pizzas. Tim Hortons, the nation’s culinary symbol of Canadiana, just launched four savoury flatbreads with pizza-style toppings, hoping to draw diners beyond the breakfast rush. The flatbreads start at $7 for the plain cheese, and it’s $8 for the ones with meat: Bacon Everything, pepperoni and chicken parmesan. (Toppings like jalapenos or a side of BBQ, chipotle or ranch dipping sauce cost extra.)
Tim Hortons chief marketing officer Hope Bagozzi says the Flatbread Pizzas were a result of surveying diners, who said they wanted more food offerings in the afternoon. Though pizza may seem like a random menu addition, she says it’s in keeping with Tim Hortons’ reputation for baked goods. “We introduced the idea of flatbreads, something that could come out of the oven but have more warmth and gooeyness,” she told the Star, adding that it took almost two years of testing (including tweaking recipes and ensuring staff could handle the expanded menu) before the official rollout began.
So now that the Flatbread Pizzas are available, what do they taste like? I enlisted two of my colleagues, staff reporters Reanna Julien and Mark Colley, to join me for lunch at the office to try a few out.
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The flatbreads aren’t made at the restaurants, but the toppings are added and baked to order, which makes sense because I cannot imagine the staff rolling out dough when they already have to execute such a big menu (it’s why McDonald’s discontinued its pizza), so don’t expect them to taste like flatbreads made from scratch and costing more than twice as much from, say, Venga Cucina in the Junction.
“It tasted like college food,” Julien said. “There was a lot more bread than toppings, except for the one with jalapenos. They’re doing too much. It’s a doughnut shop that sells doughnuts. That’s what you gotta do.”
Colley quipped that the flatbreads tasted like “something I’d make in my toaster oven, something you’d make in a pinch.”
The ovens at Tim’s takeout shops can heat up two flatbreads at a time — Bagozzi said some larger locations have more than one of these ovens — so ordering a lot of flatbreads at once might not be the best option.
This Tim Hortons Flatbread Pizza is topped with bacon and jalapenos.
R.J. Johnston Toronto Star
The best of the lot was the Bacon Everything because I added pickled jalapenos for an extra $1.20. They offered a salty-tart contrast to the fatty bacon — you can never go wrong upping the umami factor.
If you’re at Tim Hortons and crave pizza, I’d suggest you grab a slice at the pizzeria next door, but if you’re with a kid who will eat any incarnation of cheesy bread or just need something quick while on the road or waiting for a Jays game to start, I guess this will do.
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