The best part of waking up

Popular brunch chain dishes up new location in Northwest San Antonio

Snooze is expanding in San Antonio with a new location in the Strand development.

Photo courtesy of Snooze

If you ask us, it’s a shame to relegate brunch to just a few hours on Sunday. Thankfully, “A.M. eatery” Snooze is spreading the gospel that you can sit down for eggs and mimosas any day of a week.

The Denver-based chain is opening its third San Antonio location in the Strand development at the corner of Interstate 10 and Huebner Road. According to a release, the eatery aims to be open by winter.

Those who have not been able to visit the restaurant’s other two Alamo City locations can expect a huge menu that covers everything from breakfast tacos and corned beef hash to huevos rancheros and artisan sandwiches.

Snooze is especially known for its eggs Benedicts, devoting an entire section of the menu to the brunch staple. Options include a classic take with shaved hickory smoked ham; a harvest version served on quinoa cakes with watercress, zucchini, and heirloom cherry tomatoes; and an Italian benny with prosciutto and Taleggio cheese on a toasted ciabatta.

For those with a sweet tooth, the restaurant also offers an array of over-the-top pancakes loaded with ingredients like caramelized pineapple chunks, vanilla creme anglais, chocolate sauce, and blueberry coulis. If you have trouble choosing just one, they also serve a pancake flight allowing you to select any three flavors.

Like the food menu, the drink program covers all the bases. Brunch basics like mimosas, micheladas, and Bloody Marys join original creations like an Old Fashioned made with cold brew coffee; a pomegranate margarita; and Bacon and Eggs, a cocktail made with bacon-infused whiskey, house sour mix, frothed egg whites, and bitters.

Non-imbibers can choose from fresh juices, hot chocolate, chai, and a variety of coffeehouse drinks like lattes, cortados, and macchiatos.

Although each new location inevitably debuts with a line, the nearly 4,000-square-foot dining room and spacious patio should keep the opening waits at a minimum. As has become a tradition for the company, the new Strand location will partner with area nonprofits during its debut to give back to the community.

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NYT loves AUS

Pastry chef from San Antonio makes New York Times Best Bakeries list

Comadre Panadería/Instagram

Comadre Panadería is known for nostalgic Mexican bakes with feminine flair.

The New York Times has once again shined its spotlight on Austin’s culinary scene. It included Comadre Panadería, an Austin bakery by San Antonio native Mariela Camacho, on its new list of the 22 of the Best Bakeries Across the U.S. Right Now.

Interim food critic Priya Krishna praises pastry chef Camacho’s pastries that include conchas and her signature pink cake. “Despite their saccharine appearances, not one of the desserts is overly cloying, and even the coffee drinks (Texas pecan horchata! Cranberry vanilla agua fresca!) strike the playful tone of the pastries,” she writes.

Comadre Panadería has been widely recognized, including by this publication; Camacho, who is now based in Ausitn, won Pastry Chef of the Year in the 2023 CultureMap Austin Tastemaker Awards. She also earned a 2024 James Beard Award semifinalist nomination for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker.

Camacho and Comadre as a whole are both invested in using baked goods to make a more equitable world, from the bakery's early days as a fundraiser for disaster relief, to a current insistence on charging enough to support ethical and organic foods, and paying staff enough to keep up with rising costs in Austin.

Although Camacho was born in San Antonio and started her baking career there, she also spent a significant time in Seattle, Washington, where Comadre started as a pop-up. According to Austin Monthly, she then moved back to San Antonio, and then to Austin. But no matter where she is, the Mexican cooking traditions of her ancestors take precedent.

Mariela Camacho of Comadre Panaderia in Austin Mariela Camacho, Comadre Panaderia. Courtesy photo

The Times also recognized Houston's Koffeteria. Krishna hails the bakery for pastry chef-owner Vanarin Kuch’s creative fare that includes dishes such as beef pho kolaches, Chinese sausage breakfast tacos, and butter mochi.

“Some of Mr. Kuch’s offerings are rooted in his Cambodian American identity — he makes cornbread with the coconutty, scallion-forward flavors of Cambodian street corn — while others are odes to Houston’s multicultural makeup. But most of the fun of Koffeteria is having no idea what Mr. Kuch will do next, and eagerly awaiting his next innovation,” Krishna writes.

Open since 2019, Koffeteria has been riding high this year. It earned a James Beard Award semifinalist nomination for Outstanding Bakery and a CultureMap Houston Tastemaker Award for Pastry Chef of the Year.

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Comadre Panadería and Koffeteria are the only Texas establishments to make the Times’ list. Only California and New York City, which each have three representatives, earn more recognition.

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