- Jeffrey Lamont Brown
- Aug 27, 2024
THIS WEEK'S THEME:
As I gathered my thoughts on our most significant updates from this past week that I wanted to share with everyone, it became clear that this week's theme is community...our team, our friends, and the local community that makes East Village a great neighborhood.
IZOLA TEAM:
The entire IZOLA team is working hard toward two milestones:
1) IZOLA SUNDAYS
We'll soon be exiting our soft launch phase and opening on Sundays. This takes a surprising amount of coordination...
FRONT OF HOUSE team expanded and trained (we have a lot of processes - 168-page FOH training manual 😎), to be able to serve two super busy weekend days in a row, with IZOLA's warm hospitality.
PRODUCTION - We need another 1000 croissants per week to open on Sundays.
IZOLA Dough Production can now operate 24 hours a day — crazy! It's something we've wanted to do for years. Thank you to our inaugural overnight team, Jacob and Manny!
Roll-in coolers/freezers/proofers. Baking is all about managing the temperature for sourdough and croissant journey en route to our amazing SALVA ovens.
2) NEW FLAVOR DROPS
New flavors are on the way......Korean-influenced croissant, anyone? Sourdough flavor inspired by South China + Switzerland.....Do you have any guesses on what is coming? We'll announce it here 1st.
When the new flavors arrive, the Cherry Parm Sourdough and Hibiscus Tequila Knot will disapear. Now is the time to eat just one more! (Pro Tip: The Cherry Parm freezes well - stock your freezer!)
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 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 at 619-289-8358 when you're outside, and we'll deliver your croissant and cappuccino to you in your car!
IN MEMORIUM
The IZOLA family lost a team member this past week and we wanted to take a moment to remember Dojo team member Mark. Mark was an adventurous soul who scaled mountains, lived life to the fullest and loved his Padres. He made an impact on all of us, but his loss is deeply felt each and every day in our Dojo. Our team grieves for you Mark and we wish that we could get to feel the joy you brought to the Dojo one more time.
KITCHENS FOR GOOD
Our mission at IZOLA is to change the way Americans think about sourdough and croissants. And who are we kidding? Most people probably don't think about either at all!
We work toward this each day by serving our croissants and sourdough hot from the oven, focusing our attention on hospitality and the guest experience, and pairing this with our justice-driven mission.
One crucial element that allows us to deliver on this is our passion for building exceptional teams. What's our not-so-secret secret? We partner with amazing local organizations like Kitchens for Good, Second Chance, and CEO, all of which provide Restorative Justice Re-Entry (RJRE) support for people who have experienced criminal justice or addiction. Graduates of these organizations' programs are among our strongest team members overall and currently account for 17% of our team.
Kitchens for Good is the first organization we began partnering with over three years ago. We love working with KFG because they provide their apprentices with in-depth training and ongoing support to help set each apprentice up for success. They work closely with us to understand the key traits we're looking for in team members and the specific nuances between each of our departments.
We want to welcome KFG's new Workforce Development Manager, Sally! Thank you for visiting us at the bakeshop to get to know us better and solicit feedback to help build an even stronger partnership.
If you're a local business looking to hire bakers, line cooks, dishwashers, front of house team members...you can learn more here about how to become a KFG Employer Partner and you can reach out directly to Sally as well.
If you'd like to help support the life changing work that KFG is doing, donate below!
THANK YOU CLEAN & SAFE!
We are incredibly fortunate here in downtown San Diego to have the Downtown San Diego Partnership as a resource for local businesses and community members, particularly their Clean and Safe team. They have an easy-to-use app that allows anyone to report any safety or cleanliness issues that need immediate attention. I love it, and use it 2-3 times per day. For example, I spotted some graffiti yesterday, alerted them via app, and a clean and safe team member was scrubbing it off 15 minutes later. Amazing!
One unique service they offer is their safe walking program, in which their dedicated ambassadors will accompany you as you walk through downtown, whether that's to and from work or home from the grocery store.
Much of our team arrives before the sun rises, and so we reached out to Clean and Safe to better understand how our team could utilize this service. They didn't just point us to the app, instead, they partnered directly with us to walk us through how to enter a request into the app, they followed up each day to see how the experience went for our team, and continued to work with us to refine the program in order to better serve our community.
So if you live or work in downtown, or just find yourself in our neck of the woods often, download the app today and we can work together to make downtown an even cleaner, safer and more vibrant place to live, work, and play.
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.
INVEST IN IZOLA
Join Jenny and me, IZOLA's co-founders, at our next investor conversation on Google Meet before our Early Bird perk ends (ends Sep 15th!). 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.
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.
LIVE MUSIC SATURDAYS
Come join us every Saturday for live music from 8a-1p. Here are a few of the musicians that will be joining us this Saturday!
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.
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.
HORACIO JONES
10-11a
Horacio Jones is a highly sought-after classical guitarist based in San Diego, renowned for his expert performances of works by Bach, Brouwer, and Lauro. With extensive experience and a refined style, he adds a sophisticated touch to any event.
JULIE SEELY
11-12p
Julie Seely is a local musician who covers pop, folk, and alternative songs.
Our team is hard at work production testing our next croissant and sourdough flavor drops, which means that our Cherry Parm Sourdough and Hibiscus Tequila Knot will be on their way off the menu soon...
Our Cherry Parmesan Sourdough quickly became a team favorite with the rich, salty, umami flavor from the huge chunks of parmesan reggiano paired with the sweet and tart Montmorency cherries. Our parmesan reggiano is crafted using cows milk from Italian regions including Parma and Bologna and because we want cherries and parm in every bite, there is over a third of a pound of parmesan per loaf!
And the Hibiscus Tequila Knot is a special one for me because it was inspired by a cocktail that I used to make for Jenny when we first started dating. This was way back when our days were filled with climbing Tahquitz during the day, then cooking delicious meals and making cocktails at night.
The cocktail has earthy hibiscus flowers, sweet pineapple, pucker from some lemons, and was topped with jalapeño and lime (here's the Bon Appetit recipe!).
With our Hibiscus Tequila Knot, we take these same flavors but combine them all into a glaze, then enrobe a braided croissant with it. It's then topped with candied jalapeño, lime and lime zest. The result? A gently sweet pastry with a little bit of punch!
These two menu items will be leaving soon! So now is the time to either give them a try or enjoy them again before it's too late. (Pro Tip: The Cherry Parm freezes well - so you can also stock your freezer!)
We're open and baking hot from the oven:
Tuesday - Saturday
7a-2p
Live music every Saturday
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 double park outside, give us a call at 619-289-8358, and we'll deliver your croissant and cappuccino to you in your car!
And here's a little sneak peak of what's coming....
Our next sourdough drop has gooey pockets of gruyere with ribbons of lao gan ma, a spicy chili crisp, throughout.
And last week our team and a few lucky customers got to taste our next croissant drop - the bibimbap croissant! A croissant filled with daikon, zucchini, carrots, bean sprouts, gochujang, and house-made bulgogi beef. Served with pickled cucumbers, microgreens and a side of our house-made bibimbap sauce. It is is a meal that you won't want to share! (And we'll also be offering a vegetarian option too.)
Stay tuned right here for our announcement on when these two new flavor drops go live!
JOIN OUR FRONT OF HOUSE TEAM!
We're proud of a lot here at IZOLA, and one that tops the list is that we're known for our warm, kind, hospitality. My Grandma Izola would absolutely adore each member on our Front of House team for their compassion, grace, and passion for creating memories here at IZOLA.
If you want to be a part of our high performing team, we now have an open position on our Front of House team!
JOIN US TOMORROW EVENING
Join Jenny and me tomorrow evening to learn more about why we are raising capital for IZOLA and how you can take part.
Our mission at IZOLA is to change the way that Americans think about croissants and sourdough. As we take each step toward this goal, our decisions are framed by our justice-based values and the guest experience.
The five key areas that guide our justice-based decisions are:
Economic Justice
Environmental Justice
Racial Justice
LGBTQIA+ Justice
Gender Justice
As we raise funds to build IZOLA Main - our new zero-emission production factory in City Heights - we are driven by how this step will help support our justice goals....Like the increased efficiency gains that will allow us to reinvest back into our team through higher wages and more career development and training. Our current leadership team is diverse - 67% female, 50% BIPOC, and 17% LGBTQIA+ and our investment in IZOLA Main allows us to scale this further. Investing in material handling for our production will allow us to remove thousands of pounds of plastic and paper from ever being produced. And there is so much more...
Join Jenny and me at our next investor conversation, where you'll learn how we plan to impact our team and community.
Wednesday, August 21
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.
If you missed out on the Early Bird Perk that ended on July 31, don't miss out on the next one...Ending soon on September 15th.
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 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.
- Jeffrey Lamont Brown
- Aug 15, 2024
THE UGLY BIT
One of the secret "off menu" faves at IZOLA is our Ugly Bit. The polar opposite of the architectural marvel of a traditional croissant, the Ugly Bit is more like its "anything goes," rebel cousin twice removed.
The Ugly Bit was born in the very early days of IZOLA when I was the croissant maker, sourdough maker, baker, and front of house all rolled up into one. I could only make something like 24 croissants a day which would all sell out, leaving me nothing to feed the hungry bellies of Jenny and Sacha! So I started saving the "ugly" ends of the croissant dough - when we cut the triangles that form our croissants, the very ends of the dough aren't used because they are not straight.
I would gather my stash of ugly ends or bits, smother them in organic dark brown sugar, a dusting of cinnamon and whatever else I had laying around - whether it was fresh peaches or raisins or frozen blackberries....I would roll them up like a gigantic cinnamon roll, plop them into a bowl and bake them off and the Ugly Bit was born. What I ended up with was a gooey treat, fluffy in some places, crunchy in others...a treat that tends to elicit wide eyes when we serve them at the bakeshop because of how big and crazy looking they can get. Everyone's favorite part is when you get near the bottom of the bowl (yes it is baked and served in a glass prep bowl) where the caramelized brown sugar has pooled into an addictive sugary glaze.
Now we offer the Ugly Bit as a first come, first serve item (so not available as online pre-order), because we still only use the ends of our dough so inventory is limited. The glass bowl that it sits in is yours to keep, or bring it back to the bakeshop and we'll reuse it! The Ugly Bit is the tastiest way that we're actioning on our environmental mission - reduce, reuse, recycle! 😍
Pre-orders are open! While the Ugly Bit is not available for pre-order, you can add it to your order when you pop in, just ask the team at the pick-up counter.
We're open and baking hot from the oven:
Tuesday - Saturday
7a-2p
Live music every Saturday
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 double park outside, give us a call at 619-289-8358, and we'll deliver your croissant and cappuccino to you in your car!
OUR WHY
With a team of over 50, baking hot from the oven, and serving an artisanal product made by hand, our days can be long, hard, disappointing, exhausting....so why do we keep at it? It is the people - our guests, our team and our community.
Over the past couple of weeks, we've gotten to celebrate so much...from helping to create memories for a friend's daughter as Chef Lane showed her the ropes at the bake bar, to saying goodbye (for now) to a team member headed back to college. Maya has worked at IZOLA since high school and has returned each summer since. It has been a true honor to see her navigate her way through adulthood, and this summer taking lead on training our inaugural team in our back of the house operations. It meant so much to see the impact she has had on the team and the tears that were shed as we said our farewells. She is such a bright light and we're honored each time she chooses to work with us.
We also got to celebrate an important personal milestone of one of our team members, and recognize another for their above and beyond contribution to IZOLA. Our team is filled with super hard working, wicked smart, compassionate people and so it takes someone incredibly special to stand out from our already exceptionally strong team and we were happy to take a moment to celebrate team member Adrian's contributions.
And lastly a couple of super fun happenings around the bakeshop:
After seeing Chef Lane's new ink, we all now want to get Moroccan Black Olive Chocolate Croissant tattoos....
We also got to see our first prescription for IZOLA! ❤️
Since our closure on October 27, 2023, Jenny and I have been working non-stop toward reopening and building a stronger IZOLA and so it really fills us to the brim when we get to see all of these fun memories being created around us.
But we've also been having a lot of conversations around how to protect both ourselves and IZOLA for the long term because maintaining our current schedule just isn't sustainable in the long run. Success to us would be if IZOLA is around for decades to come, a community space, a place where kids can grow up and then bring their own kids to IZOLA...
And so as our team has gained tremendous competency and confidence, this past week we snuck away for a few days to visit family in Colorado. I may have had to drag Jenny away on vacation kicking and screaming (not quite, but almost!), but we were both grateful for the time with family and seeing Sacha reunite with his cousins to enjoy our family tradition of summer on the lake. And at my dad's request for a suitcase full of croissants to surprise my mom with, we delivered!
Huge kudos to our team, and our Assistant General Manager Jeff, who guided the team while we were out. And boy was he put to the test! On Tuesday morning, all before we were even open, he "got" to:
Discover that the internet was down, and it stayed down throughout most of the day. To support our ability to bake hot from the oven and serve both walk-ins and pre-orders, we have an interwoven system of Google Sheets that helps us navigate the bake and allows us to know what we have available to sell. This was another big win for the Solis, which allowed us to move to a hot spot for the morning. And a big thank you to our gracious customers, as we took orders manually for the day!
Navigate a possible plumbing issue that could have easily shut us down for the day. Fortunately, it was an easy fix. Whew. And kudos to team member Caitrin for spotting the issue and reporting it out before it became something serious! Another team member soon headed back to college that we're gonna miss...
We received a report that our Dojo cooler just ceased cooling properly. Thanks to Erick and Alejandra for supporting it and getting it back up and running quickly!
Just another day in the life of a bakery I guess?!
NOW SEEKING....
IZOLA is now seeking a VIDEO EDITOR! This person would be instrumental in creating new learning management assets for our training programs. The scope of the work would be:
Filming me, Jeffrey, to capture the full task creation, whether it be front-of-house POS training, opening up the coffee bar, and more.
We cut the videos into training modules and load them into our learning management system (LMS). We use Rippling for our LMS—it's super easy and requires no prior experience or technical expertise.
These training assets allow us to train new team members virtually so they can hit the ground running on their first shift. They also provide them with important foundational knowledge to build their confidence in their competency.
Interested? Please send your resume to Jenny.
INVESTING IN OUR FUTURE
Happening next Wednesday, August 21!
Our mission at IZOLA is to change the way that Americans think about croissants and sourdough. As we take each step toward this goal, our decisions are framed by our justice-based values and the guest experience.
The five key areas that guide our justice-based decisions are:
Economic Justice
Environmental Justice
Racial Justice
LGBTQIA+ Justice
Gender Justice
As we raise funds to build IZOLA Main - our new zero-emission production factory in City Heights - we are driven by how this step will help support our justice goals....Like the increased efficiency gains that will allow us to reinvest back into our team through higher wages and more career development and training. Our current leadership team is diverse - 67% female, 50% BIPOC, and 17% LGBTQIA+ and our investment in IZOLA Main allows us to scale this further. Investing in material handling for our production will allow us to remove thousands of pounds of plastic and paper from ever being produced. And there is so much more...
Join Jenny and me at our next investor conversation, where you'll learn how we plan to impact our team and community.
Wednesday August 21
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.
If you missed out on the Early Bird Perk that ended on July 31, don't miss out on the next one...Ending soon on September 15th.
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 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.
If you haven't seen the new installation in the Plaza de Panama in Balboa Park, it's time to make a trip to see the new Exchange Pavilion. Designed by Heleo Architecture in collaboration with Daniel Ruanova, it represents and serves as a symbolic
space connecting our cross-border communities.
The team at Heleo has been our close partner on IZOLA Main and has been instrumental in bringing our vision to life.
IZOLA LIVE MUSIC SATURDAYS
Join us every Saturday for live music at IZOLA. Here's who we'll be hosting tomorrow...
XAVY
8-9a
Xavy is a San Diego native saxophonist with a wide range of musical interests. He is also a member of the Funk/R&B band Heaping Teaspoon.
CARA CORMIER
9-10a
Cara grew up on a small farm in Kansas singing folk songs, four-part acapella hymns, and musical theatre soundtracks. Her style is reminiscent of John Prine and Gillian Welch channeling Bonnie Raitt at a bluegrass jam.
MAYBEAR
10-11a
Maybear is a singer-songwriter and indie rock musician based in San Diego. Some of her influences are Clairo, Phoebe Bridgers and Raveena.
KBKAWAII
11a-12p
Kenzie Barnickle is an indie-acoustic-pop-punk singer songwriter raised in Nashville, TN. Music fuels her creativity, and she hopes to spread whimsy and comfort to any of those who listen to her music.
MADISON NOCON
12-1p
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!