I thought Tims was the default, and those who want go to a pub restaurant before.
I still think this is the best setup. A Tims is cheap, you can loiter pretty much as long as you want, and people can get a drink, some food, or nothing. Having a pub or a restaurant as the main meeting point means that it is easy to overstay our welcome, makes it more expensive, and I think less accessible to a lot of people.
It is nice to go to a pub beforehand, but I think it is best to keep that as an optional pre-meeting venue. Just my two cents.
And Dave, I saw that article, I'm not buying it LOL