- Jeffrey Lamont Brown
- Oct 22, 2024
THE MAKING OF...
The IZOLA Almond Croissant!
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If you checked out our reel last week taking you through the 4 day journey to create our Traditional Croissant, believe it or not, but our Almond Croissant takes even longer to craft!
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The popular origin story of almond croissants is that they were invented as a clever way to repurpose leftover croissants at the end of the day. Bakers would take the leftover croissants, slice them open, add almond filling, bake them again and voilà - the almond croissant was born!
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For the IZOLA Almond Croissant, we use a fully baked croissant as the foundation. On day 5, we slice open the baked croissant to reveal the lacy honeycomb interior. It then gets a heavy soak of house-made brandy syrup.
Then the most important part - the filling! When we were developing our recipe for the Almond Croissant, the one thing we knew we had to have was almond filling throughout the ENTIRE croissant, in each and every bite!
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So we add a large scoop of our house made almond cream inside the croissant and spread it across the entire croissant. Our almond cream is made with organic eggs, almonds toasted and ground in house, Tahitian vanilla beans, organic cane sugar, organic milk...we don't add any natural or imitation almond flavorings, what you taste is pure almonds!
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After we put the lid back on the croissant, we add even more almond cream, then pile it high with sliced almonds...almonds on top of almonds on top of almonds...Almonds in every bite for sure!
Then Day 6 is bake day, where we bake in small batches all morning long to serve them hot
from the oven. After they exit the oven, our Bake team gives each Almond Croissant a generous dusting of powdered sugar.
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Swing on by every Tuesday - Sunday, from 7a-2p. Pre-orders for the week are also open - you'll get to cut the line, head straight to the pickup counter and we'll have your order ready for ya. Or take advantage of IZOLA Drive By - stay in your car, give us a call and we'll bring your order right out to you!
JOIN US ON FRIDAY!
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Join Jenny and me this Friday October 25th at 3:30p on Google Meet for an investor conversation. We'll 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 50 employees, and what our vision is for the future.
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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. We are raising funds now, which will allow us to increase our production by 20x!
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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.
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Believe in what we do? Join us.
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To learn more, RSVPÂ for our Friday 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.
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Never invested before? Not to worry! It's super simple.
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*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.
- Jeffrey Lamont Brown
- Oct 13, 2024
IZOLA WINS BEST BAKERY!
Thank you thank you thank you for voting us Best Bakery in San Diego Reader's Best of 2024 list. We are humbled by the love and support and are grateful for each day that we get to serve San Diego.
Our team is multi-talented, check out their photos....IZOLA's delicious pastries over the past few days. From left: IZOLA Bibimbap croissant, proofed (unbaked) IZOLA Signature Croissant, crumb shot of baked IZOLA Signature Croissant, and our Lao Gan Ma Gruyere. Yum! Yum!
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Online pre-orders are open for the entire week, or pop on by and order at the counter! We're open and pulling loaves hot from the oven from 7a-2p, every Tuesday through Sunday.
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*** Pro tip: Sit at the bake bar and see the towering loaves coming right off the stone decks. Chef Lane and her team of bakers: Colin, Ari, Olivia, and Zach are super knowledgeable and love to chat.
OUR CROISSANT TAKES 4 DAYS TO MAKE?!
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Join us for a tour of the croissant-making and baking process...We condense our 4 day process into this video journey - you can see all the steps that it takes to make an IZOLA croissant, and how we create all 96 of those layers of D'Isigny butter. It takes a lot of love, commitment and hard work to make great croissants every single day.
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 Click below and follow Chef Lidia and me on our tour on Instagram:
BUBBLY ANYONE?
I've long dreamed of enjoying a glass of champagne on IZOLA's patio with a warm croissant.....and that day has finally come. Last Friday, we launched our thoughtfully curated beer and wine menu with 8 delicious options. (Curious? Ask any team member for a sample.)
It has been a fun week at the bakeshop. Our front-of-house team took part in training hosted by the Breakthru Beverage team. True to the IZOLA way, we have a highly curated list: Trappist Beer made by monks. A lush red Grenache from Spain, Italian Prosecco with notes of honeydew melon, a tangy grapefruit Radler, a minerally bone-dry white from France — it's a tour across Europe!
BEER AND WINE HIGHLIGHT
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Come join us for a glass of prosecco from the Bortolomiol family. Women-led, by Ottavia and her daughters, the grapes are grown in the hills of northeast Italy, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Their prosecco is dry with hints of apple, lime and honeydew melon. It is the most versatile wine on our menu, pairing well with both the butteriness of our Traditional Croissant to the brininess of our Olive Pecan Sourdough.
Cheers!
IZOLA MUSIC SATURDAYS
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Every Saturday we host live music at IZOLA from 8a-1p. Come on by and see how talented our San Diego community is! Here are just a few of the artists stopping by this week.
PETER WILSON
11a-12p
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Peter Wilson is a singer/songwriter local to San Diego. With playing styles influenced by Hozier, Death Cab for Cutie, and John Mayer, his unique blend of indie pop is both familiar and refreshingly original.
MADISON NOCON
12-1p
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Madison Nocon is a local singer-songwriter born and raised in San Diego, CA. She got her first guitar when she was 5 and has been writing poems and music since she can remember!
ON FIRE
The sourdough team is on fire 🔥....I honestly think the team is making the best-tasting sourdough that has ever come out of our ovens (including when I was making/baking everything myself). With just 4 ingredients — organic flour, salt, water, and leaven — there is no hiding behind our Wild Sourdough. It's pure technique and love. Our sourdough has a hint of sourness from the ferment, an open and chewy crumb, and a crisp crust. Jenny's favorite is the Cranberry Pecan Sourdough because it's just slightly sweet from the cranberries and has the nutty crunchiness from the whole pecans. Spread a little Beurre D'isigny on top and add a sprinkling of Maldon salt. Yum!
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Great job Alyssa, Joseph, Ari, Maddie, Chef Lane, and our newest Sourdough team member, Jennifer.
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Online pre-orders are open now, or pop on by! We're open and pulling loaves hot from the oven from 7a-2p, every Tuesday through Sunday.
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*** Pro tip: Sit at the bake bar and see the towering loaves coming right off the stone decks. Chef Lane, Colin, Ari, Olivia, and Zach are super knowledgeable and love to chat.
BEER AND WINE SERVICE LAUNCHES FRIDAY!
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Ahhhhhh this is the life I've been waiting for, tasting delicious beer and wine in a delightful space......We're excited to announce that beer and wine service at IZOLA launches this Friday! Over the course of the last many weeks, Tammy and Daniel at Breakthru Beverage have been taking us on a journey with wine and beer. I had a clear vision of what flavors I wanted our small and focused menu to consist of, and some picks were quick and easy, like the authentic trappist beer, Chimay Red. Others took a few twists and turns before we landed on the final pick.
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We'll have a crisp, dry bubbly for you that will compliment our buttery traditional croissant, a red that goes hand in hand with the bulgogi beef in our Bibibimbap croissant, and a white and rosé that both enhance the experience of our pastries.
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The Belgian ale from Chimay is perfect with the earthiness of our Olive Pecan Sourdough, and the cider and radler we've picked are both super refreshing.
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You will also be welcome to BYOB for a $20 corkage.
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We look forward to hosting you for weekend brunch with your girlfriends, birthday celebrations with family, or a simple lunch with a Bibimbap Croissant and beer.
THE IZOLA COMMUNITY SHOWS UP IN FULL FORCE
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Last week, we shared the inspiring journeys of two of our team members, Adrian and Jennifer.
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Jennifer just moved out of a shelter and into her new apartment, and we asked if the IZOLA community could help us celebrate her with some housewarming gifts. And holy moly did the IZOLA community step in — and in a huge way. The call to help furnish her apartment went out Sunday evening and by 6 a.m. Monday morning, Jennifer awoke to a doorstep full of housewarming gifts.
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We cannot thank you enough for caring for our team and our community. We feel honored to work with people like Jennifer every day, and seeing this physical and tangible show of love and kindness brought tears to Jenny, myself, and Jennifer. THANK YOU.
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Jennifer would like to share a message with you:
ATTENTION EMPLOYERS + SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS!
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It's a complex journey we are on here at IZOLA — from making hundreds of artisanal sourdough loaves and thousands of croissants with 96 layers of butter a week to tracking the progress of each unit to ensure we can bake and serve the food hot from the oven to the guests with warm hospitality. Our team is fantastic; I bet many of you have felt it.
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The only way we can deliver this consistently is by building a solid team of people who are kind, hard-working, curious, and have integrity. How do we do it? We prioritize these personality traits and values in our hiring instead of previously acquired skills/education/training, and then we train, train, train. We welcome applicants from all life experiences, including those with justice-involved backgrounds. We have found that folks who are determined to follow a new path in life are highly motivated to come to work with that same drive, determination, care, and passion....the exact recipe for a successful IZOLA team member.
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If you're curious about our process or have any questions about our journey as an employer, please feel free to contact Jenny. She would love to share the ins and outs of what we've learned so far.
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Second Chance has a new class (cohort) every month and they host monthly Mock Interviews where you'll have the opportunity to meet the newest cohort, interview them and maybe even find your newest high performance hire. If you have visited IZOLA, it is very likely that at least one person, whether it was the team member greeting you and taking your order, making the dough for your croissant, delivering your order, or clearing your table, came to IZOLA from a Second Chance mock interview. 😉
We try to attend as many mock interviews as possible, even if just to provide practice opportunities for the class. We'd love to see you at next month's!
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If you're ready to connect and possibly hire someone from the justice-involved community, reach out to the folks at SECOND CHANCE. You can email Scott Taylor (that's him and Jenny above at this month's Mock Interviews) at staylor@secondchanceprogram.org or call him at (619) 839-0960 and just tell him IZOLA sent ya.
PRO BONO ATTORNEY?
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As we learn more about the obstacles that the justice-involved community faces, at IZOLA, we're trying to educate ourselves about how we can best support our team members. Thanks to the openness of our team members, we're learning more about some of the local services that are available for healthcare, housing, and more. We've also heard from the IZOLA community and are so thankful for the information, so keep it coming!
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One connection we would love to make is if you know of a criminal defense attorney who might be available for pro bono work. We're looking for people who could assist IZOLA team members who have already completed programs at amazing organizations like Second Chance, are on the IZOLA team, and are faced with clearing through vestigial legal issues. Someone who can help us prevent legal setbacks for our team members who are well on their way to being contributing community members. Navigating any large public system can be incredibly daunting, and we can only imagine how much more daunting and, honestly, frightening it must be when it comes to our justice system because each decision could undo the progress they have worked so hard for.
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If you or someone you know would like to talk further, please email Jenny or call her at 619-887-6300.
IZOLA MUSIC SATURDAYS
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Every Saturday we host live music at IZOLA from 8a-1p. Come on by and see how talented our San Diego community is! Here are just a few of the artists stopping by this week.
ALAN JELDEN
8-9a
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Alan has been playing guitar for over 40 years. He has a wide range of musical styles that he likes, and plays many classic rock songs. He loves spending time with his beautiful wife and daughters, and on occasion has performed with his older daughter Dylann, a.k.a. Leatea at Izola, which he really loves to do.
KAILA SHAW
9-10a
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Kaila is a self-taught Singer-Songwriter and acoustic guitar player. Her music style is peaceful acoustic, upbeat covers and thoughtful original lyrics and melodies. She puts her heart into every song and when performing she loves encouraging the audience to experience the music and interact.
JADEN GUERRERO
11a-12p
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Jaden is an independent artist from San Diego! He loves to sing, act, write, and play guitar. Studying theatre and music at USD, Jaden has a deep passion for storytelling, allowing all genres of music to inspire himself and others. Namely Neo soul, jazz, indie, rock, hip hop, Reggae and R&B.
CAITLIN MACDONALD
12-1p
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Cat Macdonald is a singer and songwriter in San Diego. She writes songs about pancakes, carousel horses, longing and divinity.