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Americans can’t get enough of the pancakes at Snooze A.M. Eatery. In fact, the Denver-born daytime restaurant—which has more than five dozen locations nationwide, including 14 in Colorado—sold about 3.8 million of them in 2023. Pancakes are one of the top three best-selling items on the menu (along with scrambles and Benedicts) at the 17-year-old chain, according to chief marketing officer Andrew Jaffe.
“Pancakes make up almost 10 percent of our sales,” says Jaffe, who also leads Snooze’s culinary development and menu innovation.
Since opening in 2016, the restaurant’s menu has featured 112 different pancake flavors. You can order the breakfast staple plain to drizzle with Vermont maple syrup, studded with blueberries or chocolate chips, and in cult-favorite flavors such as pineapple upside down, blueberry Danish, and strawberry shortcake. Snooze also offers a rotating Pancake of the Week and donates 25 cents of every sale to nonprofit partners such as the National Young Farmers Coalition, World Central Kitchen, and the Trevor Project.
Cravings for Snooze’s crowd-pleasing pancake flights, mascarpone-stuffed French toast, and avocado-topped crab cake Benedicts have gained the restaurant a reputation for hours-long wait times. But a new development is giving fans the opportunity to fill their bellies faster: Last month, Snooze began accepting reservations on weekdays for the first time. (Sorry, you’ll still have to get in a queue on Saturdays and Sundays.)
If you don’t feel like leaving your house, though, you can whip up the ultimate breakfast or brunch at home with the recipe below for Snooze’s double chocolate brownie pancakes. While it doesn’t include a batter recipe (those are still under lock and key for now), we love these instructions from the Kitchn on how to make chocolate pancakes. Or if you want a less sweet option, Alison Roman’s buttermilk pancake recipe is my go-to.
To produce perfectly fluffy rounds, Jaffe recommends not overmixing the batter, which will result in dense pancakes; having a nonstick pan and wide spatula for proper cooking and flipping; and turning them at the right time. “When the bottom is just a little bit golden brown around the edges and you see ever so slight bubbling around the edges, that’s a telltale sign that it’s time to flip them,” he says.
Snooze’s Double Chocolate Brownie Pancakes
Yield: 1 pancake
4 fluid ounces of your favorite chocolate pancake batter (store-bought or homemade)
Chocolate ganache (recipe below)
Quartered strawberries, for serving
Fresh blueberries, for serving
Powdered sugar, for serving
Using a ladle, drop the batter onto a pre-heated griddle (350° F is the ideal temperature). Look for bubbling around the edges and check the bottom to ensure the cake is set prior to flipping. Once flipped, allow it to finish cooking on the other side. Once the pancake has finished cooking, place it on a plate. To serve, drizzle it with the chocolate ganache and top it with the strawberries, blueberries, and a dusting of powdered sugar.
Chocolate Ganache:
2 cups whole milk
18 oz. chocolate chips
Place milk in a pan and bring to a boil, stirring often to prevent scorching. Place chocolate chips in a heat-proof mixing bowl and pour the hot milk over the chocolate chips. Stir using a rubber spatula until everything is fully incorporated and there are no lumps present.
