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The Team Behind the Bakery


📸 Thank you @ayanostable for the pic of our Seedy Multigrain Sourdough!
📸 Thank you @ayanostable for the pic of our Seedy Multigrain Sourdough!

WHO IS IZOLA?

 

We shared with you recently a little bit about who IZOLA was named after - my Grandma Izola. If you want to learn more about Grandma Izola, you can read about her influence on me here. But today I want to share with you about who is IZOLA, the bakery: IZOLA is our team...our team of bakers, bread makers, greeters, chefs, bussers, inventory specialists, project managers, expeditors, packers, human resources, croissant makers, dishwashers, maintenance, runners, baristas....the list goes on and on.


They cheer each other on, they go above and beyond for our guests, they come with their whole hearts, they work early hours, they work late hours, they step up and do hard things every day.

 

Thanks to the team who produces thousands of pieces of pastry a week, hundreds of sourdough, the baristas who are churning out a drink every single minute on the weekends, the back office team negotiating lower costs and making sure we're fully stocked, the packers and expeditors who pack a unit every 22 seconds, the team who carries literally one ton of flour down our stairs every week, the bussers who clear over 500 plates a day, the team who folds hundreds of napkins a day, the bakers who bake almost 500 trays of pastries a week and carry hundreds of loaves of sourdough up our stairs, the team keeping our coolers and warehouse organized, the dishwashers who wash almost a thousand dishes a day on the weekend. And I'm just scratching the surface here...


Jenny and I don't come from the restaurant industry, and neither of us have every worked a service job before IZOLA. Believe me when I say that the restaurant industry is full of the hardest working people in town! Jenny often asks me how in the world there could be so much work behind our one little bakery. And the thing is, we wouldn't be here today without the smiling faces you see here. They're a team that deeply believes in what we're doing and who loves our community. We thank you guys. Each and every one of you. Thank you for creating magical things here on Island Ave.

 

If you wanna stop by and meet our team, we are open and baking hot from the oven every Tuesday - Sunday, from 7a-2p! In a rush and have a pre-order? Just call us at the bakery when you arrive and we'll bring your order out to you! We call it IZOLA Drive By.




Thank you to everyone who helped nominate IZOLA for San Diego Magazine's Best Of San Diego. Now it's time to vote!

 

If you love IZOLA, please vote for us for:

 

We're on a mission to change the way Americans experience sourdough and croissants and thank you for your help in sharing the IZOLA love.




HOST YOUR EVENT AT IZOLA

Planning a wedding, cocktail party, networking event or corporate offsite? IZOLA ISLAND is an amazing architectural space, and we want to share it with you!


LIVE MUSIC SATURDAYS

 

Every Saturday, we host live music at the bakeshop from 8a-1p. Come on by to see how talented our local San Diego musicians are! Here are just a couple of the artists that will be by this Saturday.


ISAAC CHEONG

10-11a

 

Isaac Cheong is a San Diego Based musician and photographer. Also known as "She Blonde Swede" his EP "The shopping cart" is available for listening on Bandcamp.









AARON BOWEN

11a-12p

 

Aaron Bowen is a local San Diego musician, guitar builder, and well practiced recording artist. Bowen has recorded and produced many local musicians, he has truly lifted the music community in San Diego. His musical style encompasses many genres fused into a unique, well sculpted tone, that encapsulates the listener into a trance. Aaron plays at Izola often, we are lucky to have him.




Just.....Can't.....Wait.....


JUST.....CAN'T.....WAIT.....


I've been itching to announce our newest croissant drop. Jenny wants me to stay mum since we're not quite done with testing, but we are getting oh.....so......close......and I just can't help myself! So here's an ultra close shot of what we're working on. What do you think it is??

 

We started this project on February 4, 2024 (!) and worked on it for almost 4 months until May 24, 2024 when it finally passed initial testing. We started production testing on January 5, 2025 and we're about 10 tests in, with the 11th (and hopefully final) test happening later this week.

 

What could we be possibly testing that it would take us this long?! Everything from temperature, to adjusting for the famous salt, fat, acid, heat balance espoused by my chef crush Samin Nosrat, to crunch levels, to how it's served and eaten. And because we are baking everything hot from the oven, we're working through the logistics of how this impacts our overall baking flow.

 

So keep your eyes peeled on your inbox - I'm hoping the next email you get from me we'll be announcing our newest drop....

 

In the meantime, we have launched mimosas at IZOLA! Fresh squeezed orange juice and bubbly, topped with colorful microflowers because we could all use a little extra beauty in our day.


We are open and baking hot from the oven every Tue - Sun, from 7a-2p. 

 

In a rush and have a pre-order? Just call us at the bakery when you arrive and we'll bring your order out to you! We call it IZOLA Drive By.




HOST YOUR EVENT AT IZOLA


Planning a wedding, cocktail party, networking event or corporate offsite? IZOLA ISLAND is an amazing architectural space, and we want to share it with you!



FINDING HOUSING AFTER INCARCERATION

 

At IZOLA, we filter our business decisions through the lens of our five justice-based pillars, paired with guest experience.

 

Economic Justice. Environmental Justice. Gender Justice. LGBTQIA+ Justice. Racial Justice.

 

As part of our mission, we firmly believe in hiring a diverse team from a variety of backgrounds, one that reflects the community in which we live in. We're proud of the team here at IZOLA, because it is through our diversity that we've been able to build great things - from what we think is the kindest, most compassionate customer service in town, to the ability to serve over 1000 croissants and sourdough loaves a day hot-from-the-oven.

 

63% of our current leadership team are women. 38% BIPOC. 25% LGBTQIA+. 13% Restorative Justice.

 

Many of our top performing team members have been formerly incarcerated. And as we've learned more about their post-incarceration journeys, we've also gained a deeper understanding of the serious obstacles they face while working hard to rebuild their lives. And one of those key challenges is housing instability.

 

Today I turn to you, IZOLA family, to help us break down some of these barriers that one of our team members is facing.

 

This team member pours his heart and soul into IZOLA, each and every moment of every day. He quickly became someone that we rely on, and he's the first to jump in and help. We admire his focus, determination and spirit.

 

But he's facing tremendous difficulty finding housing. As a condition of his probation, his residence can be searched at any time. He's been in the market to rent a room, but is turned down when the possibility of a search is mentioned. The search would only occur on his room and not to the remainder of the house he is living in.

 

If you have been wanting to rent out a room to a kind, respectful tenant, please reach out to Jenny at jenny@izolabakery.com. We'd love to link you up with our team member, and we'd be happy to answer any questions you might have.

 

Thanks for helping strengthen our community one person at a time.



What's Sweet, Wild and Classic?


BREAKFAST IN BED 

 

Don't forget Valentine's Day is this Friday! I wanna make it super easy for you, so you can spend your time where it matters most - with your loved one...so, for this week only we are offering our Breakfast in Bed Kit.

 

Our Breakfast in Bed Kit has something sweet, something wild, and something classic to celebrate all the sides of your love - their sweet side, their wild side, and their classic side. All wrapped up in an IZOLA limited edition box.

 

First up - the something sweet, our Tahitian Vanilla Knot. We steep whole Tahitian vanilla beans in milk for over a day so that the milk fully takes on the uniquely sweet flavor and slightly floral scent of the Tahitian vanilla bean. We use this vanilla-scented milk as a base for the dough. When the Tahitian Vanilla Knot comes out of the oven we enrobe it in a Tahitian vanilla icing. I just love when I get hit by the scent of that vanilla caviar that's speckles the icing as I bring it up to my mouth for a bite.

 

Then we have the something wild, which is our Moroccan Olive Chocolate Croissant, what I like to call our Wild Child of Croissants. It's made with sourdough starter and buckwheat, with chopped Beldi olives throughout and two surprise bars of chocolate in the center. It's nutty, it's just slightly sweet, and a little salty from the briney olives.

 

And we have to include our classic Chocolate Croissant - four bars of Valrhona dark chocolate, 96 layers of Normandy butter...need I say more?

Your Breakfast in Bed Kit comes in a hand stamped gable box.

 

OPEN AND BAKING HOT FROM THE OVEN

Tuesday-Sunday

7a-2p

 

In a rush and have a pre-order? Just call us at the bakery when you arrive and we'll bring your order out to you! We call it IZOLA Drive By.







PS. Happy Valentine's Day to my sweet, wild and classic Jenny!










IT'S SLAMMY TIME!

 

Oh my gosh, do we have the most fun cocktail to introduce you to - launching this Friday, Valentine's Day is Slammy Juice!

 

April Fool's is still over a month away, so no, I'm not kidding you. We were hard at work today, having a wine tasting with one of our favorite people, Tammy from Breakthru Beverage, and experimenting with some wine cocktails. And Slammy Juice was born!

 

Slammy Juice is Tammy's name for wine mixed with a bubbly drink like ginger ale. In this case, we're pairing IZOLA's Campuget Grenache with our organic coconut craft soda. It's refreshing, bubbly, and fun.

 

Launching on Friday, Valentine's Day. Just ask the front counter for a glass of Slammy Juice!


LAST EARLY BIRD PERK ENDS SATURDAY

 

And just one quarter after opening IZOLA Island...we have a Net Operating Profit! Congratulations IZOLA Team. We will announce a shareholder call soon via email.

If you have considered investing in IZOLA, our current per-unit offering ends in just days, at midnight this Saturday, February 15th.

 

We are on a mission to change the way Americans experience sourdough and croissants.

 

Join Jenny and me this Thursday at 4:30p on Google Meet for a live conversation about IZOLA Future and our capital campaign.

 

We'll share with you why we're raising capital to expand IZOLA's production capabilities, improve our IT, and expand our impact. Our factory project in City Heights is well underway. This project will provide up to a 20x increase in our production capacity AND improve our quality. Additionally, we're expanding our IT capabilities to serve our customers better. And we're taking action on our 5 areas of social justice, including economic, LGBTQIA+, environmental, gender, and racial justice. It's a swing for the fences...and we need a big dose of capital to make it a reality.

 

The conversation will be super informal - come with questions, come in your jammies, call in while you're making dinner, anything goes! We look forward to chatting with you!

 

Please remember that investing is risky...most small businesses fail, so please don't invest more than you can afford to lose.



RENT THE FUTURE IZOLA MAIN!

As we finalize the plans and permits and raise capital for our new zero-emission Dough Innovation center in City Heights, we are offering the existing 5000-square-foot warehouse and office space for lease. Learn more at the link below!


SATURDAY LIVE MUSIC

Every Saturday between 8a-1p, we host local musicians at IZOLA. Come on by and enjoy the abundance of talent that we have here in our community! Here's a little sampling of who will be by this Saturday:


JOHN AND EILEEN SCHNARR

8-9a

Eileen and John have been married for 52 years and counting. They've raised five children, who have grown into unique, successful and wonderful human beings. Since 1981 John has written over 200 songs, which they have sung together. Eileen and John survived life threatening illnesses just months apart (December 2021 - July 2022). Coming out from under that experience, they joyfully embrace their current season for singing, which came with a soaring duet of Yes!


XAVY

9-10a

 

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.









LEATEA

11a-12p

 

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.








©2025 by IZOLA Bakery

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