There are plenty of places to get a great brunch in Denver, Snooze isn’t one of them. Snooze has some great things going for it. Snooze also has some problems. Unfortunately, in this case, the bad outweigh the good.
My party arrived as a group of six. This may be more than Snooze is accustomed to but is by no means an outrageously sized group, particularly for brunch, which is often a friends and family affair. Sorry Snooze, I’m not letting you use that as an excuse. Despite being both seated and served quickly, our service was poor. Each of us had to ask for at least one of our drinks multiple times. We each had water and at least one more drink like a coffee, mimosa or bloody mary, but this is common for brunch too. A large party ordering multiple drinks is no reason not to bring us our order. We had a conversation that went very similar to this:
Wait staff: Can I get you anything else?
Me: Yeah, you could get me a water and him a coffee (pointing to my dad who ordered the coffee when we sat down).
Friend: I’d like a water too, please.
Waitstaff: Okay a water and a coffee then.
Friend: No, I’d like a water too.
Waitstaff: *stares into space*
Me: That’s two waters and a coffee.
Waitstaff: Okay, two waters and two coffees.
Me & Friend simultaneously: Sure.
The way our waitress was acting she must have been on the opening 1:30 A.M. shift. No excuse when you are competing with the 24 hour diners on Colfax who have waitresses sharper than Manolo four-inch heel. The best part was when she came over asking, “How is everything?” when we were still waiting on two of our orders to come out of the kitchen.
When the meals came out of the kitchen they were less than stellar. First off, choices were minimal. There are 11 breakfast choices and 7 lunch choices. This includes two types of pancakes, one item that is basically a bowl of hash browns, and the regular-old, way-too-big, breakfast burrito that everyone in town makes. All of it is simply mediocre.
Snooze is trying to make a name for itself in the imbibing department. True, they have a breakfast wine list and this is very cool and unique. Also true that my bloody mary was pink for some reason. Too much hoarse-radish I suspect. It still tasted pretty decent though.
To top it all off, Snooze is expensive. We ended up spending $170 (tip not included) for the six of us, only half of us drinking alcohol. That’s nearly $30 a person! For brunch! Yikes!
Now for the good parts of Snooze. The saving grace on the menu is the chocolate & peanut butter pancakes with chocolate chips, and the pineapple upside down pancakes. Without these two items Snooze would be sound asleep. Snooze has an incredible location in the ballpark neighborhood and is the only brunch spot in the neighborhood that I know of. Snooze’s operating schedule is of benefit as well. Opening at 1:30 AM on Saturday and Sunday make it a prime location for an after-party gorge. The best thing Snooze has going for it though, is the atmosphere. The place is so hip it almost hurts. This is thanks to the incredible work by the people over at Xan. Kudos to Xan, you did a wonderful job. Despite the food menu being weak, the drink menu is superb and the pomegranate mimosas are utterly delish.
Hopefully Snooze can fine-tune itself. Its menu needs tweaking and the wait staff need no-doze but the outfit has a lot of potential. Don’t take my word for it, go eat there and tell them what you think.
i think we’re so hard on snooze because we WANT it to be good.
mercury cafe and watercourse – yum, but i usually have surly, slow waitstaff who are much too damn cool for school and basically couldn’t give a shit if you’re so hungover you might puke this very second without a coke refill. they’ll make you sit there and die of thirst.
d’eggos on 32nd = WORST SERVICE EVER. we weren’t even done eating and the bitch owner asked us to please hurry up because she had a line. who does that? i will NEVER EVER go there and neither should you!
now, breakfast queen, sunrise sunset, and kyle’s kitchen – also all in NW denver – not nearly the hipness factor, haha – but they are always super nice and actually CARE.
and i always have had a good brekkie at mona’s!
stellas on 32nd has AWESOME BRUNCH.
ohmigod and LUCILLES. to die for. too bad it’s always so crowded.
and there you have rosalicious’ breakfast review, in a nutshell (i love breakfast out, if you can’t tell….)
I do want Snooze to be good, and I think it can be. It needs some work though.
Anne has really funny entry about the snotyness at watercouse. I’ve never been to d’eggos and I think I’ll just go ahead and skip it.
The now defunkt Wanut Cafe on Colfax was good stuff. Speaking of Colfax how could you forget Pete’s. For late night/early morning after-drunk binge food, Petes still reigns.
There is a reason there is always a wait at Lucille’s – because it’s WONDERFUL. But they’ll let you wait on there front lawn with a cup of coffe or mimosa and newspaper. It’s almost fun waiting, and definately worth it.
Other place to try out that get the hubs stamp of approval:
Dozens
Lola
Bump & Grind Cafe
I went to Lucille’s a few weekends ago and I’m still dreaming of it! They also make a great Chai… in case anyone cares.
Snooze used a tomatillo sauce on my smothered green burrito. It was different. It was too sweet and I told them. The owners were very open to criticism. I added Cholula to the burrito to get rid of the sweet to make it hot. I won’t be ordering that again.
Oh dear god- HOW did I forget the wonderful Bump ‘N Grind? Sometimes though, with a very bad hangover, the hairiness of the dudes’ thighs (and the nasty, crusty toys they hand out) only exacerbates my nausea. But the food is damn straight up YUMMY!
And I have yet to try Lola’s brunch, but I now live just right down the street!
snooze rhymes with booze.
…and that is all ye need to know.
anne, you speak the gospel.
first time here.. hope soonze shapes up 🙂
hope things stay well with your grandma for as long as possible.