QUALITY CHECK!
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Here we are at the end of a 4-day journey for our croissants. As our croissants are coming out of our amazing Salva ovens, our superstar Bake team will perform a Quality Check (QC) on the bake. The team is looking to identify any croissants that might be undersized, improperly proofed, or don't meet our aesthetic requirements. Our QC cards empower our team members by removing any subjectivity from the check - they can size the croissant against the sizing chart, check for a color match on the bake, and they'll also cut into random samples throughout the day to check the proof.
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This chocolate croissant looks perfectly proofed with its lacy, honeycomb interior. Mmmm.....Pillowy delightfulness!
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Did you know that our croissants and sourdough bread are always served hot from the oven? That means we bake in small batches the whole time we're open, so you can experience the freshest croissants and sourdough, no matter what time you visit us. A croissant still hot from the oven?? Life changing.
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OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK
7a - 2p
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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 your car with a smile! We call it IZOLA Drive By.Â
Thank you to Gareth for stopping by IZOLA and featuring us in his compilation of some of San Diego's bakeries. Gareth and I had a lot of fun eating pastries and telling stories.
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We're extremely fortunate here in San Diego to have so many innovative bakeries. In the East Village, we have ASA Bakery and Hinar as our neighbors, and soon Relic Bageri too. Let's create an official "Bakery District," complete with a bakery crawl.
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We love the video and all the new people who learned about IZOLA from Gareth. If you stopped by this Memorial Day weekend and got caught up in the throngs of people visiting us, sorry for the line down the block and for running out of everything. We loaded our proofers with absolutely everything we could make.
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We had a couple of sell-out days, and to those who may not have had a chance to try our croissants and sourdough, thank you for your understanding. I hope you'll visit us soon. The pro tip? Place a pre-order ahead of time, and we'll have it ready for ya. (and the pro-pro tip: use the promo code "FAMILY" for 20% off your 1st preorder.)
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And thanks to our absolutely rockstar IZOLA team for pushing hard... our team fulfilled one order every minute this Sunday.....for 7 hours straight! 🤯 You're bringing so much joy to our community, thank you team!
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Check out Gareth's video here:
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! Follow us on Instagram to see the lineup!
COCONUT CREAM.....YUMÂ
Our newest iced latte is out of this world....A double shot of single origin espresso is sweetened with condensed coconut milk and topped with the most luxurious version of cold foam I've ever tasted - it's sweet, luxurious, full of coconutty flave. The Iced Coconut Cream Latte launches this Thursday!
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And thank you thank you thank you for all the love for our newest Blue Cheese & Walnut Sourdough. It seems to be a new favorite around here! Place your pre-order now and we'll have one hot from the oven waiting for ya.
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OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK
7a - 2p
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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 your car with a smile! We call it IZOLA Drive By.Â
Thank you to Channel 10 news for highlighting our restorative justice re-entry efforts. We've learned a lot over the years as we've leaned more and more into hiring team members who have or are overcoming obstacles like addiction, homelessness or prior incarceration. Like...
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Having a diverse team from a variety of backgrounds is not only great for our community, but good for business. Our retention rates far surpass the restaurant industry average, and it's even stronger amongst our team members with an RJR background.
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We have RJR team members in every one of our departments, from Front of House to Production to Office Administration. And 22% of our leadership team is part of the RJR community.
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There are more qualified people seeking employment than we have jobs. For the over 700 investors who participated in our Equity Raise, our efforts to scale the business directly impact our ability to scale the number of careers we can offer. Thank you for helping us scale our impact.
IZOLA MARKET
Last week we announced the new IZOLA Market - where we'll feature the yummiest, freshest produce we can find. Sometimes arriving to us only one day after it's picked from the fields. Available at our front counter while supplies last.
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Last week it was Tamai Strawberries, this week we've got Polito clementines from Valley Center. We're nearing the end of citrus season, so it's our last chance to enjoy these sweet and juicy clementines. We'll have these available at the front counter beginning this Thursday.
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 few of the artists that will be by this Saturday.
John and Eileen Schnarr
8-9a
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John and Eileen have been married for 52 years and counting. Since 1981 John has written over 200 songs. Having both survived life threatening illnesses just months apart they have come out from under that experience, and joyfully embrace their current season for singing, which came with a soaring duet of Yes!
Alan Jelden
9-10a
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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.
Red Ryan Music
10-11a
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Red Ryan is an Alternative Indie folk Singer/Songwriter from Mt. Laguna, CA. As a solo singer song writer, Ryan's tone is dark, rhythmic and poetic. He pulls most of his writing inspiration and style from artist like Kevin Devine, Jack Antonoff and Dallas Green.
Madeleine Denison
11a-12p
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Madeleine Denison is a songwriter and musician currently obsessing over her debut album, Etherlines. This project takes influences from the moments in life that cause time to stop, speed, or cease to exist entirely. With a mixture of folk, indie, and alt rock genres, Madeleine’s music seeks to inspire and restore us to a more beautiful vision of life.
Leatea
12-1p
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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.
OUR NEWEST FLAVOR DROP
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Wisconsin blue cheese + Californian walnuts = Addictive. Our newest sourdough flavor is here - the Blue Cheese & Walnut Sourdough.
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Our sourdough team incorporates almost a 1/3 pound each of large chunks of blue cheese and walnut halves into our newest flavor drop. It's become a staff favorite as we've been churning out test loaves leading up to launch day. I can't tell you how many times I've heard "I don't even like blue cheese....but THIS IS GOOD!"
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We use walnut halves so that you get big chunky bites of walnut. And we keep our blue cheese in large chunks so they melt and create flavor bombs with every bite.
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Launches this Thursday, May 15th. Available for pre-order beginning Wednesday afternoon.
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK
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 your car with a smile! We call it IZOLA Drive By.Â
THE IZOLA MARKET IS OPEN
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We're heading into my favorite time of year, when our local farms are brimming with the sweetest, juiciest, most mouth watering produce. And so I wanted to share with you all the best of the best that we're tasting - you'll now find one time buys at the IZOLA counter, what I'm calling IZOLA Market. Available only while supplies last!
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This week (beginning late Thursday morning) we will have STRAWBERRIES from Tamai Family Farms.
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When people ask me if I like strawberries, I usually say "No." It's a bit like when I was thinking of opening a bakery (the future IZOLA) and Jenny asked me to try making croissants. I said, "No. I don't like croissants." The truth of the matter is, I just had never had a GOOD croissant before. Fortunately I wisened up, tried my hand at baking croissants and lo and behold, I love croissants! Croissants that are hot from the oven that is.
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That brings me to the Tamai strawberries - I don't like strawberries because most of them were picked too soon, they are sour, they have too much of a bite. But, I LOVE the Tamai strawberries because they taste like what a strawberry should taste like - sweet, succulent, and that memorable smell just hits you as you bring it up to your mouth.
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Top it with a little homemade whipped cream. YUM....
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Available for walk-ins purchase only, and only while our very limited supply lasts!
IZOLA LAND
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The uber talented Chef Lane is at it again!
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For the holidays she brought us the adventures of Crispy the Croissant at Thanksgiving, then again a tear-jerker at Christmas. If you have not read these two stories, you must...but be ready to be taken on an emotional roller coaster ride!
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This month she surprised Jenny and me with the most amazing gift - a one-of-a-kind board game called IZOLA Land. It is literally a work of art. Plus she has created details that just make me laugh out loud -
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Instead of gingerbread men game pieces, they are little Jeffrey's with scarves tied on!
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The cards we draw to determine how many steps back or forward are hysterical, personal and just allow us to laugh a little about everything it takes to run a bakery - like sourdough mixers going caput, accidentally overselling on product, making sure we ask if an order if for here or to go, does our macchiato come out beautifully, is our produce fresh?
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We can't wait to have a game night with the team and see who comes out on top!
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Thank you thank you thank you Chef Lane for gracing us with your beautiful talent...
