BEFORE SAN DIEGO WAKES UP
- Jeffrey Lamont Brown
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
BEFORE SAN DIEGO WAKES UP
The bakery at twilight...it's a time I love just before the sun rises, the streets are empty, the park next door is still, and inside the bakery, it’s just a couple of team members getting the day started.
Our bakers are the first to arrive, and actually not as early as you might think. We start later and bake throughout the day because we want you to experience our croissants and sourdough the way we love them most - hot from the oven.
One of the first things our baker does is peek into the proofers. There’s a lot riding on that peek...They’re looking at the croissants and asking: Are we where we thought we’d be? Does it need another 15 minutes? We have systems and checks upon checks to keep everything on track, but every once in a great while, something unexpected might happen, like a proofer door accidentally left open or some trays of croissants not proofing as they should.
So for all of our schedules and systems, there’s still a baker standing there in the quiet of the morning, looking at the dough and deciding what it needs.
From there, the pace picks up quickly. There are around 100 trays of viennoiserie to manage on a typical morning, plus our sourdough bake, and somehow we need to get a full first round of everything through the ovens before we open at 7.
This part is a little like air traffic control...
Every tray is labeled and scheduled. A minute-by-minute bake schedule tells the bakers what needs to go into which oven and when. Croissants are egg washed. Fresh blades go into the lames for scoring the sourdough. Oven doors open and close, timers go off, and slowly the racks begin filling with the things you’ll be eating a little while later.
Meanwhile, more lights are coming on around the bakery.
The front-of-house team starts arriving. Music goes on. Flowers come out. The espresso machine gets dialed in. Outside, we’re cleaning up the sidewalks and the park next door so everything is ready to welcome you.
And at some point, almost without noticing it, that peaceful little bakery from an hour or two earlier is buzzing with energy.
It smells like butter and coffee.
There are croissants and sourdough coming out of the ovens, pre-orders being packed, and our Front of House Lead is getting ready to unlock the front door.
Then it’s 7am.
And after all of that work to get ready for opening, we’re really just getting started. The ovens stay on. The trays keep coming. And we keep baking throughout the day.
So the next time you’re tearing into a hot croissant or picking up a loaf of sourdough, there was a whole little world humming along here before you arrived. That’s one of my favorite things about the way we do things here. Opening the doors isn’t the end of our bake day — it’s really just the beginning.
See you in the morning,
Jeffrey, Jenny & the IZOLA Team
OPEN EVERY DAY 7a–2p
In a rush? Just give us a call at 619-289-8358 when you arrive and we'll bring your order out to ya - we call it IZOLA Drive By.
ATTENTION NIGHT OWLS!
There’s something pretty special about working at the bakery after everyone else has gone home. It’s quiet, peaceful, and you have the space to settle in and focus on the work. It's Jenny and my most productive part of the day.
We’re looking for an Evening Dough Production Assistant who genuinely wants that kind of schedule.
You don’t need culinary school or professional baking experience —we’ll teach you the baking part. What we do need is someone with great common sense who can work independently, solve problems as they come up, and take real ownership of their work.
One important catch: training happens during the day. You’ll need significant daytime availability while you learn the role, and once you’re fully trained, you’ll transition to your evening schedule. So this is best for someone who wants nights long-term, but has the flexibility to train with us during the day first.
We care much more about where you want to go than where you’ve been. If you have a prior conviction, we encourage you to apply.
If a quiet bakery, a lot of independence, and learning the craft behind IZOLA’s croissants sounds like your kind of night, we’d love to meet you.
SATURDAY LIVE MUSIC
Every Saturday, we host live music at the bakeshop. Come on by to see how talented our local San Diego musicians are! Follow us on Instagram to see the lineup each week.
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