Snooze looks like the kind of place that belongs to someone. The booths are mismatched, the pancakes come in flights, and the menu changes with the seasons. The first one opened on Larimer Street in Denver in 2006 and spent years as a genuine local obsession before it spread to Arizona, Texas, and California. So the question is fair. Is Snooze still a local restaurant, or has it grown into something else?
Is Snooze a chain? Yes
Snooze is a chain. It runs roughly 70 restaurants across 10 states, every one of them company-owned, and it has been controlled by private equity for more than a decade. Stripes, a New York growth equity firm, led a buyout in December 2016 and has been the majority owner ever since. Alliance Consumer Growth invested alongside Stripes in that deal. Brentwood Associates, a Los Angeles private equity firm, bought a minority stake in December 2020, when Snooze had 44 restaurants in six states.
The founders, brothers Jon and Adam Schlegel, launched the whole thing in Denver in 2006. That origin story is true. But the Schlegels have not been the controlling owners for years, and the profits flow to the funds that own the company, not to a family in Denver.
| Question | Snooze |
|---|---|
| Is it a chain? | Yes |
| Who owns it? | Stripes (majority owner since 2016), with minority stakes held by Alliance Consumer Growth and Brentwood Associates |
| Publicly traded? | No. Privately held, no stock ticker |
| Franchised? | No. All locations are company-owned |
| Locations | Roughly 70 in 10 states (67 listed on its own site, September 2026) |
| Founded | 2006, Denver, Colorado, by Jon and Adam Schlegel |
| Locally owned? | No |
Who owns Snooze? The money trail
Snooze has changed hands twice, and both times the buyer was a private equity fund. The first outside money arrived in 2012, when Boston-based Weston Presidio invested in a six-restaurant company and brought in David Birzon as CEO. Birzon ran Snooze for the next 13 years.
In December 2016, Stripes bought out Weston Presidio's position in a growth buyout, with Alliance Consumer Growth taking a smaller stake. Snooze had 17 restaurants at the time. Three Stripes partners took board seats, including David Swinghamer, a former Shake Shack CEO. Four years later, in December 2020, Brentwood Associates paid for a minority stake, and Brentwood partner Rahul Aggarwal joined the board. Terms of both deals were never disclosed.
Stripes still lists Snooze as a current portfolio company. In October 2025, after what local press described as a sluggish 2024, the board replaced Birzon with Josh Kern, the former CEO of SPB Hospitality (Logan's Roadhouse, J. Alexander's). Birzon moved to the board. A CEO swap ordered by the investors after a soft year is a very normal private equity move. It is not something that happens at a family diner.
Is Snooze a franchise or publicly traded?
Neither. Snooze has never sold franchises and has no franchise disclosure document on file. Management has said for years that the full bar, the chef-driven menu, and the sourcing standards are too particular to hand to franchisees, so every restaurant is run by the company. That also means there is no local franchisee behind your neighborhood Snooze, which is often the one piece of a chain that is locally owned.
It is not on the stock market either. There is no ticker, and the company files no public financial reports. Ownership sits with three private funds and, in smaller amounts, with management and the founders.
How many Snooze locations are there?
Roughly 70. The brand's own location directory listed 67 restaurants, open or announced, as of September 2026, and an independent count in June 2025 found 69. Texas has by far the most, with about two dozen. Colorado, the home state, is second with 14. Arizona has 9, California 6, and Georgia 5, followed by North Carolina, Nevada, Missouri, Kansas, and Tennessee.
That is small next to IHOP or First Watch, which is part of why Snooze still reads as a discovery. But 70 restaurants in 10 states, with a growth equity firm in charge, is a chain by any working definition.
Why Snooze feels local when it is not
The local feel is not accidental, and it is not entirely manufactured either. The Schlegels built community identity into the concept from the start, and the investors have been smart enough to leave it alone. Snooze gives 1 percent of sales to local causes, says it composts or recycles about 90 percent of its waste, and rotates its menu with the seasons. Each restaurant is designed to look a little different from the last one.
Brunch-only hours matter too. A full-service restaurant that closes in the early afternoon feels like a neighborhood institution rather than a growth vehicle. Most national breakfast brands run all day. Snooze does not.
- A real origin story. Two Denver brothers opened one restaurant in 2006 and it was genuinely beloved before any fund got involved.
- Small-business signals. Mismatched decor, seasonal menus, 1 percent giving, and composting all borrow the vocabulary of independents.
- Brunch-only hours that most chains avoid because they leave the dining room empty half the day.
Is that a bad thing?
Not automatically. The food is creative, the staff benefits are better than most of the category, and the giving and composting programs are real. Plenty of people have a great breakfast at Snooze and there is nothing wrong with that.
But if you are choosing Snooze because it feels like a neighborhood spot run by locals, you are not eating at one. The profit goes to three investment funds, and the CEO answers to their board. That distinction only matters if it matters to you. If it does, the good news is that the independent version of Snooze exists in almost every city Snooze operates in.
The Schlegels built something people genuinely love. A private equity firm has been calling the shots since 2016.
Find independent breakfast and brunch spots near you
Almost every city has breakfast and brunch restaurants run by owners who show up every morning. The problem is that Snooze's size and marketing budget make it far easier to find than the independent spot three blocks away.
That is what Anything But A Chain fixes. The map filters every chain automatically and shows only independent, locally owned places. Open it, search breakfast near you, and everything you see is the real thing.