FoodBozo.com

Restaurants across Canada are taking a bite out of the competition by doling out free breakfast.

By 8 a.m. Tuesday morning, the breakfast sandwich assembly line at the Subway restaurant on Granville St. in downtown Vancouver was in overdrive—English muffin, pre-cooked egg, sliced ham and cheese, then into the oven. Brush away crumbs. Repeat. Despite the frantic pace, the lineup spilled out the door and down the street, drawn by that siren call of the tired and hungry morning consumer—a free breakfast and coffee.

There may be no such thing as a free lunch, but when it comes to breakfast, fast-food chains are doling out meals and coffee to anyone who’ll take them. Last November, Burger King Canada gave away free coffees every Friday, having earlier handed out complimentary breakfast sandwiches. Subway’s one-day breakfast and coffee giveaway was its second in 10 months. Meanwhile, McDonald’s has blitzed the morning crowd with free coffees five times since 2009, with each event lasting between one to two weeks.

The goal is invariably the same each time—to get as many new people as possible to try their offerings with the hope that some moochers come back for more as paying regulars.

Read more: Free food fight

Some pies get surprising raves, while others have chewy crust and rubbery cheese.

Chicago has deep dish, New York has slices, and airports have Sbarro. Or had. The pizza chain restaurant is preparing to file for bankruptcy, which may mean the end of stuffed veggie pies steaming behind sneeze-guards.

Read more: The best and worst pizza: the chains we live for and those we don’t

A bill was introduced at Queen’s Park on Wednesday aiming to make eating out a healthier experience.

The private member’s bill from NDP health promotion critic France Gelinas would require major chain restaurants to list calories on their menus to encourage healthy eating across Ontario.

Read more here: Calorie counts on menus proposed for restaurant chains