Second Cup

Second Cup was founded in Toronto in 1975, originally selling whole bean coffee and equipment from mall kiosks rather than operating as a café chain in its current form; it later shifted toward the sit-down, espresso-drink model most people associate with it today. That shift put Second Cup years ahead of Starbucks' entry into the Canadian market in the mid-1990s, giving the chain a first-mover advantage in introducing specialty, espresso-based coffee culture to Canadian consumers.

A national chain from a Toronto start

Second Cup expanded into one of Canada's largest coffee chains through the 1980s and 1990s, competing directly with the American chains that eventually entered the market, and remains headquartered in Ontario today alongside newer ownership and rebranding efforts, including the more recent expansion of Second Cup Coffee Co. locations into food-forward café formats. It remains one of the longer-running homegrown Canadian coffee chains, tracing its roots directly back to a 1970s Toronto mall kiosk.

Sources

• The Canadian Encyclopedia — Second Cup
• Wikipedia — Second Cup

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