In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic on June 10, 2020, Jeffrey Brown and Jenny Chen started selling their home-baked, warm-from-the-oven organic croissants and sourdough bread, which they delivered “touch-free” to customers on the street via a rope-pulled basket from the window of their third-floor East Village apartment.
When indoor gathering restrictions lifted in 2021, the couple turned the bottom floor of their loft apartment into a café with everything served oven-fresh and live music on the weekends and sales doubled. In June 2022, their Izola Bakery (which is named after Brown’s grandmother Izola) was named the No. 1 bakery in America, based on Yelp reviews. And in 2023, sales topped $1.6 million.
Things were going so well for their fast-growing business in 2023 that Brown and Chen launched an $8.5 million capital campaign to dramatically expand the company by building a central bakery in City Heights, with future plans for multiple satellite bake shops around the region.
Then eight months ago Izola was shut down on a few hours notice when Brown and Chen learned their their city operating permit no longer covered their business, which had grown from the two of them in 2020 to more than 30 employees last fall. It was a devastating blow that Chen called “the worst day of our lives” because all of the employees had to be let go. Fortunately, area bakeries like Bread and Cie, Con Pane and Asa Bakery hired all of their laid-off workers and purchased their excess product.
Chen, a former e-commerce product developer and merchandiser, said the unexpected work stoppage had a silver lining. It gave her and Brown the time they never had before to finally experiment with new recipes for their menu and to build up the database of systems, operations and employee management that a growing business needs.
Now they’re back. On June 27, Izola Bakery reopened just a few blocks from its former location in a former restaurant space overlooking Fault Line Park. The dining room has indoor-outdoor seating and a baker’s bar where customers can sit and watch the bakers prepping and cooking bread and croissants in Salva convection ovens from Spain. All of the dough-making, rolling, shaping and proofing is done by a roughly 10-member team in the building’s basement, which is kept chilled to ensure the imported French butter used in the croissants doesn’t melt.
The restaurant sells a rotating variety of 27 flavors of sourdough breads and croissants, as well as Tahitian vanilla knot pastries and morning buns. There are also coffee drinks and tea. The busiest day of the week is Saturdays, when a line usually forms around the block with up to 600 orders by the time the doors close at 2 p.m.
Brown said he thinks the secret to their success was creating a unique product niche with warm-from-the-oven baked goods served in an inviting and customer-first atmosphere. Orders are delivered to the table on high-end plates and trays with cloth napkins. Half loaves of bread are served with a serrated bread knife and French jam. Customers are welcome to take home a free jarred sample of the bakery’s live sourdough starter.
“We’re not just a restaurant,” Brown said. “We have a mission to change the way American thinks about sourdough bread and croissants.”
A former commercial photographer and filmmaker, Brown said the loyal community that ed Izola before the shutdown returned immediately when the doors reopened in the new location. And residents of the Spire high-rise apartments near the new location have greatly expanded the customer base.
The company now employs 52 workers and rising sales now warrant both a move to a 24-hour baking schedule and, soon, the restaurant will begin opening on Sundays.
Which brings the couple back to their long-range plans for expansion. Before the closure, Brown and Chen had raised half of the money they need to build their Izola Main bakery at Thorn Street and Fairmount Avenue in City Heights. The building, which is now in the permitting stage, will be a zero-emission factory that will allow the couple to automate the days-long process of hand rolling and chilling the 96 layers of dough and butter required for their croissants.
With the increased production automation could deliver, Brown said they could hire 170 more workers. Eventually, they plan to open 12 retail locations stretching from Tijuana to Hollywood, each with onsite ovens so everything can be served warm. They’re also talking about a UPS overnight shipping operation, offering home-delivered overnight shipments to customers as far away as Los Angeles County.
In addition to delivering on their promise of fresh-baked warm bread, Izola has also launched a restorative justice employment program to hire workers recovering from addiction, incarceration and other obstacles with the help of the local re-entry programs Second Chance and Kitchens for Good.
One of Izola’s success stories is Second Chance alumna Autumn Costa, 25, a recovering addict who said she spent much of her late teens and some of her early 20s on probation. She started working at Izola in June busing tables. Now she’s in training for a position as a floor manager.
“This job has kept me on the right path,” Costa said. “There’s a lot to learn and it’s hard work, but it’s been great for me and and for all of us. When we wake up in the morning we’re excited to go to work. It’s not just a paycheck for us.”
Izola Bakery
Hours: 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays
Where: 1429 Island Ave., downtown
Phone: (619) 289-8358
Online: izolabakery.com
