A behind-the-scenes visual tour of IZOLA, photographed by our fantastic team. It's a quick peek into the focus and care we put into making our croissants and sourdough for you. With the best-tasting ingredients, through our multi-day process, where even a momentary lapse in attention can have major consequences. It's a hard job, pls show em your love.....a kind word, a hug, or a tip. (We share your tips equally with all team members...justice!) Thank you IZOLA Team!
PRO TIPS How can I get a croissant? Pre-order online or walk in! And speaking of preorders, preorders for this week are open now! Here are some pro-tips: Pre-orders open a week in advance: For example, pre-orders for Thursday open the Friday prior, at midnight. But you don't need to order far in advance: Most of our pre-orders come through in the last day or two and we typically have most everything still available for order. Sometimes even same-day pre orders are available. Almond croissants sell out first, but we're working on increasing our production! In fact, you don't even need to pre-order, just pop on by and we'll have something tasty for ya: We love to see your faces! Our amazing Dojo team continues to find the space for us to offer more product each week. That means we are not selling out like we used to! No pre-order? No problem. Pop on by! Have a pre-order and in a hurry? No problem! Double park downstairs and call us at (619) 289-8358, we'll run your order down to you with a smile. We call it IZOLA DRIVE-BY.
We've Been Cloned! Hold on to your hats because we've got some major news to share: we've been cloned! Yeah, you heard that right! Double the Jeffrey, double the Jenny...uh oh... But in all seriousness, we really want to take a moment to express our heartfelt gratitude to the amazing IZOLA community. You all are simply the best! Your support and love have blown us away. THANK YOU! Now, let's talk about these gifts. Erick and Lupita, we couldn't do what we do with out either of you. Your thoughtfulness just warms our souls and makes us smile. We'll cherish these! If you'd like a clone too or your very own set of hand-crocheted IZOLA baked goodies, just head on over to El Crochet de Paula. Props to Paula for making them by hand...that's some next-level talent right there!
THANK YOU. On behalf of everyone at IZOLA, I wanted to extend our heartfelt gratitude to Assemblymember Tasha Boerner for taking the time to visit IZOLA and present us with this Certificate of Recognition for our impact on the San Diego community. We are truly humbled and deeply appreciative of the honor you have bestowed upon our team. We recognize the hard work and effort you, your team and our elected officials put in to bring about positive change, and we are genuinely grateful for your commitment to our communities. This Certificate of Recognition will hold a special place in our hearts, reminding us of the significance of collaborative efforts between elected officials and community members. Your visit has energized and motivated us to continue striving for progress and making a positive impact in our neighborhoods. Thank you for choosing to recognize our efforts, your encouragement means the world to us!
BEHIND THE SCENES While the updates above may lead you to believe I get to spend my days being lavished with love by our amazing IZOLA community, the reality is that I am currently spending most of my time behind a laptop, with an empty cappuccino cup on my desk, and plans and specs sprawled across my screen as I dive headfirst into the details of our IZOLA Main plans. If I'm not buried in plans, I'm on the phone checking in with our large team of architects, landscape and lighting designers, kitchen consultants, engineers and more. It's a long slog. Why do I do it? Because we want to change the way Americans think about sourdough and croissants, all while scaling up our justice-based mission into more communities here in San Diego and beyond. We have a lofty vision for IZOLA and we're turning to you, our community, to help us get there. We've raised about half of what we'll need to execute on this vision, through both debt and equity, and we have another $3.5M to go! IZOLA is powered by our community. Your dedication to this movement is what allows IZOLA to invest in American Manufacturing, create living wage jobs and expand IZOLA across Southern California. Right now, we’re asking you to make an investment in our capital capital. If you can, chip in here:
Or to learn more, we'll be hosting an online Google Meet this Thursday, August 3rd, at 4p.
*Please only invest an amount you would feel comfortable losing. Investing in private businesses involves risk. Though potential returns are designed to reflect that risk, there is a possibility that you will lose your entire investment.
PROJECT MANAGER We had such great success last week when we asked you all for leads to help us with our grant writing, we're looking to the IZOLA community once again - know of a great Project Manager? We're looking for an experienced Project Manager with a background in construction who can manage our Asana projects, proactively follow up with stakeholders and team members to keep us on schedule, review incoming docs to confirm all requests were accurately delivered, and work closely with me to understand my vision to help us execute. Interested? Email Jenny!
CAD DESIGNER We are also looking for someone who would love to be on an call CAD designer to help support our current construction projects. I was so desperate to move this process along, I've taught myself the basics of CAD in the last few months, but it's not enough. Looking for someone that I can call to communicate my changes to and have those changes turned around quickly (I'm talking hours or within the day) so we can keep our teams pushing forward. Interested? Email Jenny!
IZOLA MUSIC SATURDAY Every Saturday IZOLA hosts live music - come see how diverse and talented our San Diego community is. We post our full musical line-up every Friday night on Instagram - follow us here! Here's a sneak peak at some of the line up!
IZOLA
The name IZOLA (pronounced "eye" zola) is one that I've held close to my heart since I was a little kid growing up on a farm in Dodge City, Kansas. It was my maternal grandmother's name. Grandma Izola was compassionate, loving, strong-willed, super smart and put her family and community first. Even before we launched the bakeshop, we knew what it would be called. Because above all, we wanted to create a space like Izola did - one where everyone was welcome, a place where great conversation took place and laughter filled the room, and stomachs never left empty. I hope that when you walk through the front doors at IZOLA, you know you're in a place where you can linger and enjoy a hot croissant and cappuccino... Pre-orders are open now. We also hold half of our inventory each day for walk-ins, so pre-orders aren't required - you can just pop on by. Have a pre-order and in a hurry? No problem! Double park downstairs and call us at (619) 289-8358, we'll run your order down to you with a smile. We call it IZOLA DRIVE-BY.
COFFEE IS BACK! Cappuccinos...Iced Potions....they are back at the bakeshop! Enjoy a cappuccino made with beans from the Roots COOP in Papua New Guinea and grass-fed organic milk. Or try our Iced Potion - a refreshingly herbaceous iced tea made in-house with peppermint tea, honey, fresh mint, thyme, and lemon.
COME JOIN US! IZOLA is powered by community. Your dedication to this movement is what allows IZOLA to invest in American Manufacturing, create living wage jobs and expand IZOLA across Southern California. Right now, we’re asking you to make an investment in our capital capital. If you can, chip in here:
Or to learn more, we'll be hosting an online Google Meet this Wednesday at 7p.
*Please only invest an amount you would feel comfortable losing. Investing in private businesses involves risk. Though potential returns are designed to reflect that risk, there is a possibility that you will lose your entire investment.
GRANT WRITER We are looking for help with applying for grants and are seeking an experienced grant writer to assist part-time for the next couple of months. Love IZOLA and our justice-driven mission? Help us expand our our economic, gender, LGBTQIA+, racial and environmental justice impact across San Diego county. Interested? Email Jenny!
IZOLA MUSIC SATURDAY Every Saturday IZOLA hosts live music - come see how diverse and talented our San Diego community is. We post our full musical line-up every Friday night on Instagram - follow us here!
Our IZOLA Morning Bun is a favorite way to start the day. Paired with a hot cappuccino and I'm ready to take on the day. Our morning buns are crafted from our same 4 day process croissant dough - made with butter from Normandy, organic flour from Utah and organic milk. For the filling, we add cinnamon, organic sugar and the zest from about 1/2 an heirloom orange for each morning bun. Our Dojo team rolls them up and they proof overnight. In the morning, our Bake team gives the Morning Buns a little extra bump of steam and heat before baking them off. Coming out of the ovens, the filling is now carmelized, creating a slightly gooey bottom. Our bakers then give them a little extra dusting of organic sugar before we serve them hot from the oven to you! While they don't last long in our household, if you have an extra Morning Bun or two, store them in a sealed plastic bag to keep them from drying out. To reheat, just pre-heat your oven (a toaster oven also works great) to 200° F. Morning Buns can dry out quickly, so you'll want to give them a quick spritz of water (just run it quickly under the sink, trust me!) before placing them in the oven. Bake until warm, about 10 minutes. Pre-orders are open now. We also hold half of our inventory each day for walk-ins, so pre-orders aren't required - you can just pop on by. Have a pre-order and in a hurry? No problem! Double park downstairs and call us at (619) 289-8358, we'll run your order down to you with a smile. We call it IZOLA DRIVE-BY.
IT'S BAAACK! For those of you who popped by the bakeshop this last week, you were amongst the first to hear that coffee is back at IZOLA! We soft launched this past week to refine our process and are now excited to officially announce that coffees and teas are back on the menu. Enjoy a cappuccino made with beans from Cafe Moto and grass fed organic milk. Or try our Iced Potion - a refreshingly herbaceous iced tea made in house with peppermint tea, honey, fresh mint and thyme and lemon.
CELEBRATING COMMUNITY This past weekend I had the opportunity to walk in the Pride Parade for the first time. Leading up to the parade, I was excited, anxious, scared...I didn't know what to expect. And man, am I glad I did it. To see HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of people come out to support the LGBTQIA+ community - it was restorative...and I got to see the best of humanity that morning. Pride to me is simply a celebration of love and of community. It's a time when we come together to embrace each person's individuality whether you are gay, straight or anywhere in between. We get to dress how we want to dress, love who we want to love. We are kind to each other.
COME JOIN US! Join Jenny and me next Wednesday July 26th at 7p on Google Meet as we share why we started IZOLA at the start of a global pandemic, what has kept us going each day as our little project has grown to over 30 employees and over $1M in revenue, and what our vision is for the future. The day we snapped this photo Jenny and I were stoked that we had enough demand to fill almost a full rolling rack of croissants for the day. We were still making all of the croissants ourselves, pulling late nights on the weekends, driven by the joy we saw on the faces of our customers and the kindness we received from them. Fast forward to today, our passionate, hardworking Dojo team is working day and night 7 days a week so that we can bake about 1000 croissants a day, served hot from the oven. And it's still not enough - we're selling out each day and that's not what we envision for the IZOLA experience. We are raising funds now, which will allow us to increase our production by 20x! We aim to change the way America thinks about croissants and sourdough. The IZOLA way. Hot from the oven, great hospitality, amazing quality. Justice. Investing in American Green Manufacturing. Creating careers. Improving the quality of our bread and croissants. Planning to open 12 IZOLAs in SoCal. Hard? Yes. But so exciting to invest in American manufacturing and in our community. Believe in what we do? Join us. To learn more, RSVP for our Wednesday call and drop by for a minute and say hi or stay the whole time. It's a fun time and super casual. We'll share with you where we've been, our plans for the future, and why we are raising over $3M in the next year. Never invested before? Not to worry! It's super simple. *Please only invest an amount you would feel comfortable losing. Investing in private businesses involves risk. Though potential returns are designed to reflect that risk, there is a possibility that you will lose your entire investment.
IZOLA MUSIC SATURDAY Every Saturday IZOLA hosts live music - come see how diverse and talented our San Diego community is. We post our full musical line-up every Friday night on Instagram - follow us here!