Traveling around the globe to North America, the top three best sellers for Williams Coffee Pubs are Irish Cream, Vanilla and a tie with Hazelnut and Raspberry, all from Oscar's. Based in Kitchener, Ontario, Williams Coffee Pub opened just a little over five years ago. Today, this regional chain now boasts 15 stores with 6-8 scheduled to open in 1999. Gary Hallam, Director of Operations, reports the stores are a meeting place, offering fresh brewed coffee and specialty beverages along with gourmet teas, cold beverages and a broad range of meals to include cold and hot sandwiches, Italian style sandwiches, soups and salads, assorted pastries and luscious desserts. Some of the stores are licensed to sell alcohol, although they only serve beer, wine and liqueurs for the specialty coffees.
Customers have the option of dining in, take out or drive thru.
This theme is definitely carried over to their myriad of signature drinks. For instance, Hallam reports syrups are added to layered flavored cappuccinos, flavored hot chocolate, to regular coffee, Italian sodas, iced coffee drinks, smoothies and frappes. Frappes are also signature. Using Willy's base Frappe mix, they use bananas and syrup to create such flavors as Strawberry Banana Frappe, Chocolate Mint Frappe, Mocha Frappe and Raspberry Chocolate Frappes. Currently, all drinks used with syrups are non-alcoholic, said Hallam.