The downtown artisan bakery IZOLA will open a second location in Sorrento Valley in December, replacing the now-closed California English restaurant.
The croissants-and-sourdough-only bakery quickly grew in popularity over the last few years, earning awards, national recognition, and many “best of” lists. Co-founders Jenny Chen and Jeffrey Brown began in their East Village photo studio and now expanded up north to meet their growing customer base.
Located at 9276 Scranton Road, this second location sits on the life science campus Biovista, a property owned by Longfellow Real Estate Partners. Brown said he was excited to work with the Longfellow team whose community-driven mission closely aligned with IZOLA’s.
“We want to curate spaces for people to hang out in, to gather,” Brown said.
But at the beginning of their journey, those spaces were put on hold for Brown and Chen.
Stuck in Paris during the initial quarantine of the pandemic, Brown was still a photographer and Chen worked in e-commerce. The couple eventually returned to their home in East Village, only to find it unrecognizable.
“Our neighborhood was decimated,” Brown said. “There was nobody in the streets. Trash everywhere. It was crazy. It was like one of these apocalypse movies. So I was like, ‘What can we do to make things a little bit nicer?’”
After that day, with no prior baking experience, Brown decided he would finally open the bakery he had always talked about.
Constrained by social distancing requirements, Brown and Chen came up with the idea of lowering their first batch of baked goods in a basket from their East Village photo studio down to customers on the street below.
“My first croissants and sourdough: terrible. Just terrible,” he said. “And then the next day, I would change one thing in the recipe and make it again. … I’ve basically failed my way to a decent croissant.”
After 700 tests, Brown and his team crafted several original recipes, including the Korean-inspired Bibimbap croissant filled with marinated bulgogi beef, the Carnitas Croissant honoring flavors from across the border, and their specialty S’Mores Croissant featuring a homemade marshmallow melted with a torch.
Chen and Brown point to their travel and love for other cultures to explain their culinary inspiration. While Brown acknowledges that some French people may have criticism for extravagant savory croissants, he believes blending the Californian, Korean, Mexican and French flavors he loves is his way of honoring them, all while remaining culturally sensitive.
These croissants have another thing in common: they come out of the oven 15 minutes before they end up on a plate.
Chen and Brown don’t believe in the traditional way of baking everything in the morning and serving it for the rest of the day. Instead, they want customers to eat freshly baked, just like they would at home.
Because it takes four days to make a croissant, IZOLA uses customer data to create hourly forecasts and minute-by-minute bake schedules. That helps with the oven-to-plate transition.
“It takes a lot of coordination because I can’t just say, ‘Oh, we’ve got a big rush, let’s just bake that croissant off early.’ If it’s not fully proofed, I can’t do that,” Chen explained.
That coordination, along with doubling the output of 1,400 croissants a day, is one the challenges Brown feels apprehensive about regarding the opening of the Sorrento Valley location. His biggest concern, however, is maintaining the same hospitality as the first bakeshop.
“The thing I’m most worried about is: how do you maintain the emotional energy of creating hospitality, of making sure that everybody is aligned, of making sure that things are running in the way that you want them to be run.”
IZOLA’s business plan focuses on social justice and strives to provide opportunities for all diverse communities.
“We intentionally structure our leadership teams to mimic the world,” Brown said. “…We’ve got folks who come through our restorative justice reentry program, who were in prison 12 months ago and who are now leaders. That changes lives.”
Until the ovens arrive from San Sebastian, Spain, Chen and Brown are looking to expand the team and have new staff trained before opening day in December.
