At Snooze, an A.M. Eatery – which has outposts in Austin and in cities in Colorado, California and Arizona – breakfast is certainly the most important meal of the day.

The buzzed-about breakfast restaurant opened in Houston in mid-July in a space on Montrose just south of Westheimer ready to serve the neighborhood breakfast and brunch (and a few sandwiches) seven days a week. Snooze opens daily at 6:30 am but only stays open until 2:30 pm. At Snooze, the mantra is “life is for living and each person and each day is worth celebrating,” so why not treat yourself to a morning cocktail and a big ole breakfast.

All of the Snooze locations work with local vendors to create seasonal, fresh menus. At the Houston restaurant, local purveyors including Slow Dough Bread Co., Boomtown Coffee and Black Hole Cold Brew Coffee, as well as other Texas vendors from Dripping Springs, San Marcos, Austin and McGregor. Take a look at all of the Houston location partners here.

The menu starts with a selection of assorted egg dishes. They range from the Snooze Classic ($9.75, eggs any style, choice of protein, hash browns and toast) to a breakfast pot pie ($9.25, rosemary sausage gravy, puff pastry, topped with an egg) to huevos rancheros ($9.50, tortillas layered with black beans, cheese, ranchero sauce and three eggs any style, photo below). You can add to or top your dish with all sorts of veggies and meats – caramelized onions, basil, mushrooms, avocado, roasted garlic, bacon, barbacoa, prosciutto … the list goes on.

Heuvos Rancheros with scrambled egg whites

Up next on the menu is the beloved Benedict, but served and prepared six different ways. It’s hard to make a decision, so Snooze offers the mix-and-match Benny Duo ($12, photo below). The caprese Benedict is a playful twist on both dishes. Heirloom tomatoes tossed with pesto surround the poached egg, which sits on toasted ciabatta and fresh mozzarella. The cream cheese hollandaise and runny egg yolk bring the dish back to brunch, and the drizzle of balsamic reduction adds just enough sweetness.

The caprese Benedict

The chili verde Benedict seems just right for Houstonians. Slow-cooked pork is the star here, piled over a stack of green chile-sauced tortillas and melted cheese. It’s topped with a poached cage-free egg, of course, and finished with green chile hollandaise, pico de gallo and cotija cheese.

There’s a whole section of the menu devoted to pancakes, too, and they have some outrageously rich options to choose from – pineapple upside down pancakes with caramelized pineapple chunks, vanilla creme anglaise and cinnamon butter, or how about sweet potato pancakes topped with candied pecans and ginger butter.

The sweetest we tried was the peach cobbler pancake, filled with fresh peaches and lemon cream cheese and topped with almond streusel. This pancake tastes just like a Funfetti cake (in the best way) – it’s incredibly sweet and serves best as a dessert. Classic options are available, too, like chocolate chip and blueberry (ask for extra blueberries if you want your pancake to bleed blue. It was light on the fruit). The best way to experience the pancakes? The flight of three smaller-sized pancakes for $9.50.

The pancake flight

There are non-breakfast items at Snooze, and the Peter Paul Rubens ($10) is worth skipping brunch (you can still get a side of hash browns anyway). It’s piled with artisan corned beef, sauerkraut and Swiss cheese with house 1,000 Isle dressing. It’s all served on a salty pretzel roll. The menu describes it as “a work of art,” and that’s not far off. We had it twice in one week.

Both of our visits were on a week day, as we’ve heard weekend wait times can be incredibly long. In fact, our server told us that the wait reached three hours one Sunday. (Yikes!) But at least there’s free, self-serve coffee while you wait. It’s as the saying goes (we’ve held out long enough): If you snooze, you lose.

Snooze, an A.M. Eatery, 3217 Montrose, 713-574-6655, snoozeeatery.com
Hours: Daily 6:30 am – 2:30 pm