“I felt like breakfast was a very underserved market,” said Engman, who operates San Diego-based Rise & Shine Restaurant Group, owner of Breakfast Republic. “I felt like they were all pretty much the same. The same tables and booths and nothing really special.”

Breakfast Republic’s seven locations — four more are also in the works — are the antithesis of the old-fashioned diner. Customers wait in “egg” chairs and each location has a unique industrial look, but a living plant wall and a retail wall are always part of the layout.

“Branding was another really big part of it,” Engman said. “[I wanted to create] a brand-driven restaurant where there’s a retail aspect where we sell our Breakfast Republic caps and T-shirts and so forth. When somebody is walking around San Diego with a Breakfast Republic cap, that’s marketing, that’s a walking billboard.”

The menu also aims to capture the brand’s fun, irreverent feel. Shrimp and grits with two eggs on top is a top seller, along with indulgent items like s’mores or the Mr. Presley French toast, stuffed with peanut butter and topped with bananas foster and bacon. And there’s a French toast sampler available for diners who can’t choose just one. Pancakes are also a customer favorite. Guests can order a “flight” of three, in flavors like Oreo, churro and strawberry cheesecake.

There’s a “high emphasis on alcohol” here, and Engman manages to sell “a lot of alcohol even though it’s in the mornings,” he said. On the menu are brunch classics like mimosas and specialty cocktails like the Horchata cold brew, made with Fugu horchata vodka. Beer and kombucha round out the menu and help push the average check past $18.

Breakfast Republic has struck a chord with San Diego diners, and there’s often a wait at peak times, Engman said. Restaurants are open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Engman says he has no plans to extend the hours, despite the crowds. “I’m the restaurant that when you drive by 90 percent of the time there’s a line out the door,” he said. “I love that.”

However, he is planning on opening mini restaurants onsite at Breakfast Republic locations to capitalize on those long lines. Eggies, as the fast-casual concept will be called, will be a place for diners to wait for their table over coffee and muffins. Customers can also choose to skip the line to get a fast-casual breakfast instead.

Eggies will be built in 8-by-20-foot freestanding locations, many of them shipping containers. They’ll be serving up an array of breakfast foods served in mason jars.

For now, Engman is focusing on expanding to Los Angeles and Orange County. He believes the brand has potential beyond California, but he’s taking his time. “We’re growing fast, but we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves,” he said. “We want to ensure the culture and what the consumer in San Diego fell in love with remains. If you go too crazy and open too fast you can lose that organic feeling.”