Sales jumped beyond where they were in 2019, up 20 percent in volume. Snooze is also proving that operating in a sustainable way does not have to come at the expense of a brand’s success. For Snooze, sustainability isn’t merely a buzz word thrown around, it’s something Birzon says runs deep in the DNA of the brand. Having employees committed to the same environmental and community impact is integral in making sure sustainability is not just corporate speak. One of these is giving back a percent of sales in cash or in-kind donations to the local community. Taking its sustainability promise a step further, each Snooze restaurant has a “Green Captain,” someone appointed to ensure the unit maintains its corporate social responsibility functions. Additionally, all Snooze restaurants divert 90 percent of waste from landfills. As of 2021, 95 percent of Snooze’s ingredients meet these standards. Since the outset, the chain developed a set of rigorous “Snooze approved” standards for food and sourcing partners. 1, and just the idea around it is we want to leave the planet better than when we found it,” Birzon says. Sustainability has been a Snooze hallmark since the beginning. On Earth Day 2020, Snooze pledged to offset the carbon created by deliveries and pickup orders, partnering with Native Energy and Medford Springs Grassland.
Leaning into off-premises orders, which now take up around 15 percent of business, required an internal analysis of Snooze’s contribution to waste. Instead, it’s an environment for Snooze to pull forward in, Birzon says. In all, COVID was not a reason to curb Snooze’s growth. Currently, the brand is participating in a test of its virtual concept, Bodegga, which offers chef-inspired egg sandwiches, breakfast wraps, and coffee. With canned cocktails, a shift to outdoor dining and an investment in technology, Snooze made it through, Birzon says.
Snooze additionally turned toward cocktails to-go, including bottles of champagne with cold pressed orange juice for mimosas and Bloody Marys. And elevated takeout became a permanent part of the business. But, as Snooze learned, breakfast food travels well if done right. For a breakfast concept, it was moving into relatively uncharted territory because of the assumption that it was hard enough to get eggs from the kitchen to the table. Snooze, like concepts across the country, pivoted to takeout when it had to. COVID, again, was this reminder that we're really good at operating restaurants.” “We're in the business of operating restaurants. “I've always said that we're not in the business of growing restaurants,” Birzon says. “So we made all the necessary pivots and leaned into a bunch of new opportunities that we really believe are moving the direction of our business.”ĭealing with COVID enabled Snooze to revisit the core of its brand. "When businesses and things get tough, it allows you to get very creative,” Birzon says. The pandemic was the worst thing to happen to the industry, Birzon says, but it revealed some silver linings. So the goal is hopefully never.”Įven throughout COVID, Snooze managed to open up six units over the past year and plans to unveil 12 in 2022, including in fresh markets like Las Vegas and Nashville. “Now that we've hit 50, I say we can't afford to have a lousy restaurant until we hit 75. “I used to joke around, ‘guys, we can't afford to have a lousy restaurant till we hit 25,’” he adds.
We think the biggest compliment we can get is when people are surprised to find out that we're actually a chain.” “We really strive to make all of our restaurants unique. “Every new location is not some diminished copy of the previous one,” Birzon says. While the brand hasn’t been the fastest grower in the industry, Birzon says, it has never drifted over the years. The Denver-based brand, founded in 2006, opened its 50th domestic store on September 1 in West Midtown Atlanta. Snooze was designed on an ethos of “breakfast, but different.” To Birzon, this meant high-energy, creative, and innovative in every angle-a mantra that stretches from operations to sustainability to employee culture. Yet here was a brand capable of creating a new platform for the morning daypart. Eatery, was that nobody had shaken up breakfast in three decades. CEO David Birzon’s first thought when he encountered Snooze, an A.M.
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