HALIFAX—King of Donair (KOD), an institution of the Halifax donair scene, is continuing to expand its dominion with a brand new shop in Edmonton and 10 Western Canadian shops expected by the end of the year.

KOD owner Nicholas Nahas of Halifax said the Edmonton store, which opened last week, is the first franchise to open outside the Maritimes. A Grand Prairie, Alta., shop is slated to open next month, and Nahas said locations in Vancouver, Calgary, Regina, and Winnipeg are in the works.

The donair — which consists of an indulgent helping of spiced beef and other toppings on a pita — is Halifax’s official food, as declared by Halifax regional council in 2015.

KOD, which first opened in 1973 and now has four Halifax area locations, tops its donairs with onions, tomatoes, and a sweet and garlicky donair sauce. Nahas said western Canadian donair shops do things differently, but the KOD brand will represent the Halifax style in their franchises.

“(Western donair shops) put different toppings, namely lettuce, and sometimes they’ll put pickles or cheese on as well, which is almost sacrilegious to the East Coast donair,” Nahas said.

Edmonton shop owner Kayla Burke is also a Maritimer. She and her boyfriend Colin Abbass moved to Alberta from Cape Breton a number of years ago to work in the oil and gas industry, and they pined for East Coast pizza and donair after moving away.

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On each trip home, a pizza run was a priority for the couple, Burke said. They tried lots of shops in Cape Breton and on the mainland of Nova Scotia, eventually deciding to ask KOD about franchise possibilities.

Burke echoed Nahas’s contempt for some of the toppings that she sees at other Edmonton donair shops.

“They put the weirdest things on it ... A lot of people are coming in asking for lettuce and we’re like, ‘No we don’t sell lettuce, that’s not an East Coast thing,’ ” she said.

The menu at the Edmonton shop has a few minor differences from the Halifax locations, but the staples are the same, said Burke — something most of her clientele are thrilled about.

“Most of the people coming in are Maritimers, for sure,” she said.

But the Edmonton shop has only been open for about a week, and Burke said she hopes to “change the culture” and attract more Edmontonians to adopt the Halifax-style donair.

In the meantime, she said they’re plenty busy with the East Coast expats who’ve been coming through the doors.

Nahas said he’s been thinking about expanding west for years. The Halifax shops sell donair sauce in bottles and donair meat in vacuum-sealed packages; Nahas said not a week goes by without a few customers buying those items to take a bite of the Maritimes across the country.

“(They) take it in their suitcase to go to some other province in the country because people miss the taste of home,” he said.

A successful pop-up shop in Calgary in 2016 was “the real kicker” for Nahas. He said people drove for hours, cut work and waited in line for five to six hours for KOD. That’s when he knew there was an appetite in Western Canada that KOD could feed.

Interest from potential franchisees is rolling in daily, Nahas said, from all over the country and even abroad. After settling into its western locations, he said KOD will turn its attention to Toronto and Ottawa. He’s fielded calls from Newfoundland and New Brunswick, too. Eventually, Nahas said they’ll consider international locations, but for now, recent pitches from Dubai and Abu Dhabi are on the back burner.

KOD opened in southern Edmonton on Whyte Avenue — a street akin to Argyle Street in Halifax, where late-night hunger pangs are satisfied by donairs and pizza.

“It reminds us of home,” said Brendon Briggs as he looked out the window of the shop on Thursday.

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Born and raised in Halifax, he moved out to Edmonton to build houses 10 years ago.

“I think the biggest difference between donairs out west and donairs back home is the sweet sauce,” he said.

Edmonton donairs are known for their tzatziki-like sauce and less-than-preferable meat spices, he said. He missed the spicy, crispy meat he remembered from out east.

After anticipating KOD’s opening for weeks and watching their social media like a hawk, he finally had the chance to chomp into his first East Coast donair in the city he now calls home.

He brought along a couple Albertan friends, too. They gave the Haligonian donair a thumbs up.

“We’re on vacation this week,” Briggs said, “so what better way to spend a vacation than get a little taste from home?”

With files from Kieran Leavitt

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