We have a small, but mighty team of 6 who handcraft each of our croissants, Tahitian Vanilla Knots and Morning Buns every week - they are lovingly referred to as our Dojo team because they meticulously create delightful pastries from a simple dough. Led by team lead Lidia, our Dojo team works literally day and night 7 days a week to create the thousands of pastries we'll bake in the 4 days (or 20 hours) we're open each week. The Dojo team works in a custom built insulated room to ensure each pastry is created under the optimum temperatures. The art of lamination (the process of enveloping layers upon layers of dough and butter to create airy layers of a croissant) is temperamental - it requires precise temperatures to ensure the butter is soft enough it is pliable, but not so warm it melts into the dough. The team works quickly when they are laminating - the gentle heat from their hands can even warm the dough up too much. At every step they are measuring the thickness of the dough, the temperature, and monitoring time elapsed. Between each lamination step, the dough rests and relaxes in the coolers - a step that is tempting to skip but crucial to creating a high quality pastry. Above the Dojo team is completing our Tahitian Vanilla Knots. They began their journey over 4 days ago when the team scrapes vanilla caviar out of whole Tahitian vanilla beans to steep our organic milk with. The milk steeps for days, then is used as the base for the dough of the Tahitian Vanilla Knot. This vanilla-scented milk imparts a subtly sweet and floral note to the dough. When the lamination is complete, hundreds of precisely measured knife cuts are made into the dough, then each knot is braided and rolled. They then rest overnight before hitting our proofers for the final leg of their journey. Our bakers bake them hot-from-the-oven, then dress them in Tahitian vanilla glaze before they make their way to you. We hope you enjoy the handmade creations from our Dojo team! Pre-orders are open now. We also hold half of our inventory each day for walk-ins, so pre-orders aren't required - 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. We call it IZOLA DRIVE-BY.
IZOLA INVESTOR CONVERSATION...... See Ya Tonight! Jenny and I are hosting an informational conversation 7-8:30 tonight for folks interested in learning more about our equity raise. Drop by for a minute and say hi or stay the whole time. Tune in while you cook dinner, feed your kids or go for a run. 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 have a lofty goal of raising over $3M in the next year. Never invested before? Not to worry! It's super simple, and in fact most of the over 300 IZOLA community members who have joined us have never invested like this before either. We're happy to answer any and all of your questions tonight. *We'll say this again tonight, but 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.
VOTING OPENS TODAY! San Diego Reader's annual Best Of poll opens today! If you love IZOLA, you can vote for us as Best Bakery. Thanks for the love and support IZOLA fam!