OUR WHY
Last week was a good week. And who am I kidding, every week is a good week - I feel so fortunate each and every day to be able to get to do what I do. But last week was particularly special because Jenny and I had the honor of attending one of our team member's graduation from Kitchens for Good's apprenticeship program. A little over two years ago, we began our partnership with Kitchens for Good. Founded in 2014, Kitchens for Good harnesses the power of food to address economic inequality by providing culinary career training for individuals with barriers to employment. In 8 years, 750 apprentices have benefitted from their program. After visiting IZOLA on a Kitchens for Good tour in 2021, apprentice Jesus applied to become a sourdough assistant and joined our team. In just under two years, he is now our Sourdough Lead, making the best bread we've seen come out of the IZOLA kitchen, including the bread made by my own hands. And last week, after successfully completing KFG's intensive 10-week program and accumulating 2460 hours work experience to complete his apprenticeship, Jesus graduated. His dedication and passion for crafting exquisite sourdough have played a pivotal role in fostering the vibrant Izola community that exists today. We are honored to be a part of Jesus's journey. At graduation, KFG Board Member Don Williamson shared some inspiring thoughts as he announced the graduating class. He spoke of the choices that you and I each make each and every day. Some choices send us down the wrong path, and Kitchens for Good simply provides more choices for our community - some days are hard, but if we keep making the right choices and not be deterred by the hard ones, we have the opportunity to change the trajectory of our lives. I can tell you that I'm so grateful for the choice we made two years ago to partner with Kitchens for Good. If you’d like to support their work, please consider making a gift today. Or if you are in the restaurant or hospitality industry and would like to become an employer partner, contact them today.
PRE-ORDERS OPEN NOW Speaking of Jesus, shout out to Jesus for the picture above. He's really developed a great eye for photography and has been the photographer behind many of the sourdough images you see right here in this newsletter! Pre-orders are open now! We'll be baking hot from the oven this Thursday - Sunday, from 8a-1p. We also hold aside at least half of our inventory each day, so if you don't have a pre-order, no problem, just pop on by. Have a pre-order and in a hurry? No problem! Double park downstairs and call us at (619) 289-8358, we'll run your order down to you with a smile. We call it IZOLA DRIVE-BY.
A TRIP TO DENMARK
Ok, this is completely unrelated to croissants and sourdough, but Jenny and I just had to share this meal with you. We enjoyed it so much we went back the following week... We've been wanting to try out the Taste of Denmark over in Hillcrest for quite some time, but whenever we think of going, they are closed (sound familiar? 😉). We finally made it by for a late Sunday lunch and we were blown away. They make most everything in house. Our meal began with a few slices of house made rye bread, with pickled red cabbage, a creamy remoulade and sweet strawberries. The rye bread was unlike any rye bread we've had before - it is chock full of sunflower seeds, making it crunchy and nutty in flavor. Combined with the creamy remoulade and the sweet and punchy cabbage, it was addictive. We had to buy a loaf of rye and a bottle of remoulade for home. I'm snacking on a slice as I type this! Next up - the Grill Bar Burger. Another brand new experience for us, this is unlike any burger you've had before. We learned some fun facts about Denmark from our server: Danes love pork (the number of pigs in Denmark outnumber the people!) and the quality of the pork from Denmark is like no other. The Taste of Denmark uses Danish pork in their recipes. The Bar Burger is made of thick slices of pork rib roast, pickled red cabbage, pickles and remoulade. The skin is perfectly crisp, creating the most tasty cracklings. In each bite you get a deep, satisfying crunch, the juiciness from the succulent pork, the sweetness from remoulade and pickled cabbage...yum...This sandwich is not for the faint of heart, or for folks who can't stand a mess! All meals must end with dessert if Jenny is present, so this last weekend we finished our meal off with their Aebleskiver, fluffy molded “pancake balls” - of course served hot! They have a crusty exterior and soft center and are dusted with powder sugar and served with jam. A few things to note: This is a small family business, please keep that in mind when visiting! They have limited hours (11a-4p Wed-Sun) and limited staff, so when you visit, be prepared to just linger a while and enjoy the company of folks you're with or those around you. The Bar Burger is only available on the weekends. The pork roast is house made and cooks low and slow all morning long... And since everything is house made, sometimes they might be out of something (we couldn't take a loaf of rye home with us on our first visit). We hope you visit and enjoy the experience! If you have any fave spots, share them with Jenny, she's always on the hunt for a great meal.
COME JOIN US!
Join Jenny and me next Tuesday October 10th at 4p on Google Meet lead an investor conversation. We'll share why we started IZOLA at the start of a global pandemic, what has kept us going each day as our little project has grown to over 30 employees and over $1M in revenue, and what our vision is for the future. The day we snapped this photo Jenny and I were stoked that we had enough demand to fill almost a full rolling rack of croissants for the day. We were still making all of the croissants ourselves, pulling late nights on the weekends, driven by the joy we saw on the faces of our customers and the kindness we received from them. Fast forward to today, our passionate, hardworking Dojo team is working day and night 7 days a week so that we can bake about 1000 croissants a day, served hot from the oven. And it's still not enough - we're selling out each day and that's not what we envision for the IZOLA experience. We are raising funds now, which will allow us to increase our production by 20x! 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 Tuesday call and drop by for a minute and say hi or stay the whole time. It's a fun time and super casual. We'll share with you where we've been, our plans for the future, and why we are raising over $3M in the next year. 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, there is a possibility that you will lose your entire investment.
*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, there is a possibility that you will lose your entire investment.
IZOLA MUSIC SATURDAY Every Saturday IZOLA hosts live music - come see how diverse and talented our San Diego community is. We post our full musical line-up every Friday night on Instagram - follow us here!