- Jeffrey Lamont Brown
- Sep 17, 2024
LUNCH AT IZOLA
We're super stoked over the response to our new flavor drops - the Lao Gan Ma Gruyere Sourdough and Bibimbap Croissant (and it's vegetarian counterpart the Vbap!).
Our Bibimbap Croissant has become the team's favorite for lunch. It's filled with bulgogi beef, carrots, daikon, kimchi, house made bibimbap sauce...served with beautiful microgreens, cucumber salad and more bibimbap sauce for dipping. We also have the VBap Croissant, the veg version, and interestingly enough, may actually win out as my favorite. Coming from a carnivore like me, that surprised me!
NOW OPEN SUNDAYS!
Wow.....did the IZOLA community come out in full force to celebrate our first Sunday open here at Island Avenue! We are sooooooooo happy to be back open for the full weekend and officially come out of our soft opening stage. (Though our sign still says "coming soon," don't let that fool ya! Our fingers are crossed that our permanent sign finally gets released from customs jail this week. 🤞)
The entire team did such a phenomenal job this Sunday:
Our Dojo team increased production and launched a brand new (and complex) croissant flavor all in the same week.
Our small but mighty Sourdough team kicked off their first Saturday production shifts while also launching a new flavor.
Our front-of-house team killed it both Saturday and Sunday! They served over 600 people each day, over 1500 croissants and sourdough loaves, and our Dishes team washed over 100 sheet pans plus hundreds of plates and cutting boards.
Our Bake team baked croissants and sourdough hot from the oven all weekend long, clocking in at over 25 oven loads of croissants and 17 loads of sourdough each day. 😳
And here's a mind-blowing fact — our production team (Sourdough, Croissant, Bake) took 628 flights of stairs just to support Saturday and Sunday service days alone! For every tray of croissants we roll or every load of sourdough we bake, a team member brings a full sheet pan of them up the stairs, then down the stairs to bring the next load up.
Thank you, team, and thank you to our IZOLA community for coming to see us. We look forward to seeing you this weekend!
PRO TIP: Looking for a more chill experience? Come see us Tuesdays through Fridays - shorter lines (if any!), full menu available!
NEW EXTENDED HOURS
Tuesday - Sunday 7a-2p
(ABOVE) The team stages out all pre-orders for Saturday on Friday afternoon, but by Saturday morning here are all the new orders to stage!
(ABOVE) The team celebrating an EMPTY orders screen! WOOT WOOT! Power team! (Not pictured as she's behind the camera: The amazing Andy, our Expeditor!)
THE GLAMOUR OF RUNNING A BAKERY 😉
We've received such great feedback on the Reels we've been posting showing behind the scenes footage (like this and this), we thought we'd share some deets on what we've been up to this week:
First up: It has to happen - grease trap and lift pump maintenance. In the wee hours of the morning we sheathed 60 feet of hose, then guided it down to the basement. (Warning: Noisy video, a little gross)
Oven repairs: My tip for business owners - have a backup in place and always carry spare parts! We spent a little time this week installing replacement parts on one of our croissant ovens, and cleaned the top of the ovens while we were at it, because why not?? (Can anyone spot Jenny?)
Surprise Inspection: The DEH visited us yesterday for an inspection! All went great and we appreciate the County for educating us and keeping us all safe. There's a lot that I appreciate about our team, and today was another day where the pride in their work showed...
And the team took part in their regular maintenance, like power washing the sidewalks, picking up trash surrounding the bakery, putting touch ups on the paint around the bakeshop and much much more...
IZOLA FUTURE:
Join me and Jenny this Monday September 23rd at 6:30p PST on Google Meet for a discussion on IZOLA's future and why we're raising funds to support these five areas of justice:
ECONOMIC
ENVIRONMENTAL
GENDERLGBTQIA+
RACIAL
It's a fun conversation, super informal...we'll touch on where we're at now, our plans for the future, and how you can take part.
LIVE MUSIC SATURDAYS
Every Saturday we welcome local musicians to come and perform at IZOLA from 8a-1p. Here's a sneak peak at some of the artists dropping by this weekend.
KAHLIL NASH
8-9a
Emerging from the elite San Diego music scene in California, San Diego Music Award winner Kahlil Nash is a Funk/Rock and R&B recording artist/producer who is a multi-instrumentalist. Influenced by artists Michael Jackson, Jimi Hendrix, and Prince, Kahlil Nash thrives to entertain his audience.
SHANTI
12-1p
Shanti brings the soul, love, and expression to every one of his performances. It is captivating and a dream to experience. A true time machine to the 60's meshed with new school style.
- Jeffrey Lamont Brown
- Sep 9, 2024
NEW FLAVOR DROPS
Dust off your taste buds.....tomorrow we launch the IZOLA Bibimbap croissant...Lunch at IZOLA, anyone?
This croissant shows our love for K-Food. House-made everything: daikon/zucchini/carrot filling for the veggie version (VBAP) with the addition of Asian pear marinated shabu shabu for the carnivores.
Served with IZOLA's own BAP SAUCE: scratch-made with notes of maple, ginger, and some heat.Korean Mom approved.
We've never seen a croissant like this, and the team is excited to share with you.
Carnivore Confession: (I love the VBap almost more than the meat)Congratulations to the entire IZOLA Team for pushing the limits of what a croissant can be....Chef JB
LAO GAN MA GRUYERE
Wait a minute...what's Lao Gan Ma? A chili crisp from the Guizhou Province in China. Delicious?...Absolutely (with some heat)
Plus Emmi Roth AOP Gruyere, with flavor notes of candied walnut, a touch of warm spice, and dried fruit.
CHINA X SWITZERLAND
Gooey, spicy, yum yum nestled in a loaf of IZOLA Sourdough. I've died and gone to heaven!
SUNDAYS ARE HERE!!
We are officially out of soft launch mode. HOORAY!!! It has taken a lot of planning, but our teams are ready for us to open on Sundays.
Beginning this Sunday September 15th, we will now be open on Sundays, from 7a-2p! 🎉
Our new expanded hours are:
Tuesday - Sunday
7a-2p
ASK US ANYTHING!
Join me and Jenny this Thursday September 12th at 11a for a live Q&A online - ask us ANYTHING! And we mean anything! It will be hosted by Bill, the CEO of Microventures where our capital raise is hosted. We'll kick it off with an overview on why we're raising funds, but then turn it over to YOU!
Will we ever sell baguettes?
Where do I get my cool kicks from? 😉
Will you be opening an IZOLA in North County?
What's the minimum to invest?
Where do we get our ovens from?
Our early bird perk ENDS THIS SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15th, so it will be your last chance before the cost to invest goes up!
CONGRATULATIONS!
Please help us congratulate our newest Front of House Leads! Emma, Zach and Adrian were promoted this week and will be working with our Assistant General Manager Jeff on leading our Front of House team. Each new lead embodies the IZOLA spirit - they are compassionate, hard working, curious, kind.
Our Front of House team is a powerhouse team. Many of you have been able to experience the hospitality that they provide while we're open, but this team also manages a 10 page opening checklist and a 6 page closing checklist. And our new leads will be working with the team to execute our open, service and close.
Our Front of House team ensures the bakery and the surrounding sidewalks and park are ready to welcome our guests; they'll wash up to 125 sheet pans, hundreds of plates, glassware, cutting boards and knives a day and our production dishes; they'll prepare hundreds of gable boxes a day in anticipation for our pre-orders and to-go orders; they service, calibrate and test the espresso equipment; fold hundreds of napkins; power wash the surrounding sidewalks, vacuum and mop our dining room and basement and soooooo much more.
We are so grateful for you team!
LIVE MUSIC SATURDAYS
Every Saturday we welcome local musicians to come and perform at IZOLA from 8a-1p. Here's a sneak peak at some of the artists dropping by this weekend.
MAYBEAR
8-9a
Maybear is a singer-songwriter and indie rock musician based in San Diego. Some of her influences are Clairo, Phoebe Bridgers and Raveena.
LEATEA
9-10a
Leatea (San Diego native Dylann Jelden) has been a musician all her life, beginning with classical violin at age 4. She began writing songs and incorporating guitar in high school. She performs regularly in San Diego.
MADISON NOCON
10-11a
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! Madison has released a few singles on Spotify, and plans to release her full album “Candid” this fall!
TAHITIAN VANILLA KNOT
Most of what we serve here at IZOLA is great for sharing - it's fun to go on a tasting journey where you can jump from a buttery bite of our traditional croissant and over to a briney, chewy bite of our Olive Pecan Sourdough and then maybe onto something sweet like our fragrant Morning Bun that is spiked with freshly zested heirloom orange.
But one thing that's hard to share? The Tahitian Vanilla Knot. Our pro tip? Order more than one!
Our Tahitian Vanilla Knot is made from a dough similar to our croissant dough, but with a slight tweak on the ratios of butter, sugar and milk and braiding it instead of rolling it, we get something quite different from our traditional croissant - a bite that is fluffy yet still light. We also steep whole Tahitian vanilla beans into the milk that we use to make the dough which makes our Tahitian Vanilla Knot fragrant and gently sweet. It's then enrobed in our housemade Tahitian Vanilla glaze where you can see vanilla caviar throughout.
LAST WEEK!
This week is the last week to snag a Hibiscus Tequila Knot or a loaf of Cherry Parmesan Sourdough. Our sourdough freezes well, so stock up, then follow our simple reheat instructions here.
We're open and baking hot from the oven:
Tuesday - Saturday
7a-2p
Live music every Saturday.
*note Saturdays are super busy, we recommend visiting IZOLA during the week for the best experience.
Either pop on by or place an order ahead of time. If you have a pre-order, you can also use IZOLA Drive By — just give us a call when at 619-289-8358 when you're outside, and we'll deliver your croissant and cappuccino to you in your car!
WE'VE COME A LONG WAY, BABY!
Jenny and I had a super fun visit from our good friend Jazzy this past Saturday. It was her first visit to IZOLA Island, but Jazzy has a long, deep history with IZOLA.
When we launched IZOLA in June of 2020, it was a time when we were all sequestered at home and so I thought we'd deliver most of our orders and Jazzy was our very first delivery customer! Here she is waiting eagerly at her window for her croissant delivery. ❤️
As IZOLA grew too big for just myself to staff, Jenny started helping, our son Sacha, then soon Jazzy started coming by to lend a hand. She would help us hand wash mountains of dishes out of our little kitchen sink, she was on hand when we muscled our first reach in refrigerators up the loft stairs (we broke only 1 window and needed only a minor drywall repair afterwards! 🤣), she was and always will be part of the IZOLA family.
And so we were touched by Jazzy's visit to IZOLA Island and watching her take it all in. Being in the thick of things, it can be hard to recognize the massive changes that have happened over the years, but we had so much fun taking Jazzy on a tour and feeling her excitement over all of the little things - like having gone from one little kitchen sink for our dishes to having a full-fledged three-comp sink, dishwasher and what was most thrilling for her was that we had an entire rack for dishes to dry on! Oh, the things we never knew in a million years we'd get excited over!
Creating IZOLA has always been and continues to be a massive community effort. We really couldn't have done it without you Jazzy - we love you and are so grateful for your friendship.
BEER AND WINE COMING SOON...
As we move into the last phases of our beer and wine license application process, I've turned my attention toward creating a hyper-focused menu of beer and wine for IZOLA.
Our croissant and sourdough menu is intentionally small - we only want to serve food that we absolutely love. And it will be the same when we launch beer and wine too - a white, a red, a bubbly and a couple of beers, that's it! Through a couple of detailed taste tests (15 beers and a handful of different wines....), we think we've found some really complimentary pairings that go so well with our croissants and sourdough and can't wait to share 'em with you!
Thank you to Tammy and Daniel for working through all of this with us!
CITY HEIGHTS COMMUNITY
We are preparing to build the IZOLA Main Dough Factory and Bakeshop at the corner of Fairmount and 43rd in City Heights, which will bring high-quality jobs with training and internal advancement accessible to members of the community, create new community gathering space for children and families to improve social health (and enjoy hot from the oven croissants), and revitalize an important corner with a zero-emission dough factory that helps to de-carbonize City Heights.
Soon, we will meet with the City Heights Community Planning Group and others, and we'd like to share your thoughts about IZOLA Main in City Heights with the group members. If you live in City Heights or are a community group member in City Heights, we need your help with a letter of support. Please reach out to Alejandra Salas for details. This is an ambitious project which will bring benefits to the community for decades, but its success is by no means guaranteed, we need everyone's support to move past the status quo and make a difference.
ENDS IN LESS THAN 2 WEEKS
Join Jenny and me, IZOLA's co-founders, at our next investor conversation on Google Meet before our Early Bird perk ends on September 15th, less than 2 weeks away! Learn more about where we're headed, how we intend to use automation to improve efficiency + profit margins + quality, raise wages, and reduce our environmental footprint, and how you can get involved.
JOIN US:
Wednesday, September 4
6:30p on Google Meet
Learn more about IZOLA Main and our plans for the future as we raise funds for IZOLA's next chapter.
Believe in what we do? Join us.
To learn more, RSVP for our Wednesday call and drop by for a minute to say hi or stay the whole time. It's fun and super casual. We'll share with you where we've been and our plans for the future.
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, you may lose your entire investment.