SEPTEMBER 2010 ONLINE EDITORIALS
Snooze: Where your breakfast won’t get soggy
By Maggie Canty
Snooze
If you’ve noticed the crowds gathering outside Steakout and wondered when it started opening at 7am and why your pastor is in line, you’ve missed the breakfast bandwagon.
But it’s never too late to jump on the Snooze train.
When it comes to the morning meal places in Fort Collins, it’s the egg eater’s market. One can barely walk a block without smelling pancakes or running into a bacon-crazed hungover mob waiting for a seat at one of our many Fort famous breakfast joints.
So when Snooze moved in last April, I was a skeptic.
Fort Collins loves its locals, and this company was not only Denver-based, but also took over the north sidewalk on Mountain Avenue with construction for months. As if the late-night Trailhead crowd wasn’t enough of a roadblock. Not a good first impression.
Plus, wasn’t the hash brown market saturated?
Apparently just with trans fats.
The throngs you’re seeing every morning aren’t college students stuck in the wrong time zone, but the hundreds of new Snoozers who have fallen in love with the whimsical atmosphere, unique menu and a full bar open at 6:30am.
Fort Collins, meet Snooze. I think you two will get along just fine.
As you walk into the building, it’s impossible not to notice the decor. Staying true to the design of the original Snooze, the room is filled with warm colors, booths and walls lined with the star-like logo, and inventive light fixtures casting a soft glow over breakfast dishes that could easily be mistaken for works of art.
After taking it all in, I did what any good breakfaster does.
I ordered a cup of coffee.
Snooze brews its owner’s own Guatemalan organic blend, flown in each week. If drip is too diner for you, they also offer a full espresso bar, manned by a trained barista.
The adult beverage menu is the most extensive I’ve seen before 9am. They go beyond the typical mimosa and bloody, offering cocktail creations made up of juices and infused vodkas. I didn’t think I liked grapefruit juice. Turns out, that’s just because my mom never added raspberry vodka.
Once you’ve got your liquid of choice, you’ve only just begun. Alongside the traditional bacon and eggs, the menu breaks out of the breakfast box, with items like breakfast pot pie and barbecue beef covered in hollandaise.
The sweet tooth won’t be disappointed either. Their pancake selection makes IHOP look like child’s play. A few of the standout flavors I tried were sweet potato, pineapple upside-down cake and mojito. And yes, it tasted like a mojito. Weird.
Needless to say, they passed the menu test. But the next question every good Chaco-wearing FoCo resident asks is, at what cost to the environment?
Snooze composts 95 percent of their waste, as well as shops locally and donates to the community. How’s that for green eggs?
The bigger cost worry, however, is the one on the wallet. For all those other college grads working the service industry, we know that $15 breakfasts are anything but sustainable. But that also makes it a great place to take mom and dad.
So the next time you’re staring at a bowl of Wheaties and trying to convince yourself that it’s five o’clock somewhere, head downtown. Because in this case, you Snooze, you win.
Snooze: 144 W. Mountain Ave
Open Monday-Friday 6:30am-2:30pm,
Saturday-Sunday 7am-2:30pm