FULL CIRCLE Long before IZOLA could meet the minimums required to purchase our French Beurre d’Isigny butter through a distributor, I would drive all the way to North County and clear out the shelves at Jimbo’s. They were the only local store carrying butter of that quality, and we needed every pound we could get to keep laminating croissants. We didn't choose Beurre d’Isigny because it sounded fancy or because it was French. We chose it the way we make most decisions at

WORTH THE WAIT Slice a croissant thin, hold it up to the light, and it unveils an enchanting beauty. You can see the spiral at the center, the gossamer layers stretching outward, and the open pockets that make the croissant feel almost impossibly light. It's a mix of art and engineering, and that's what sparked my passion for croissants 6 years ago. I rarely tire of gazing upon the crumb structure of a croissant. It began as a 1 kilo block of butter, 2850g of dough, both

COME CLOSER... I took a pretty circuitous path to opening a bakery. In college, I studied civil engineering. Then I discovered I could make a career out of photography and was ready to quit school, with only one semester left, to chase my dream of working for National Geographic. My wise mother strongly advised against that plan. Thanks, Mom. I finished the degree, then spent decades working as a photojournalist, director, and photographer before eventually finding my way

THE LONG GAME There are faster ways to build a bakery. I could launch products before they’re ready. I could settle for “good enough.” I could stop testing once customers seem happy. But we’ve never been very good at any of those things. Take the croissant. From the outside, it looks simple enough. Golden, flaky, hot from the oven. But that honeycomb inside tells a much longer story. People see a croissant. We see six years of tiny decisions. When we first opened