Esa Yonn-Brown was born and raised in San Francisco, CA. Raised in a family of passionate cooks that were an early part of the slow food movement and used as many fresh ingredients as possible in their meals. Esa has been working in the restaurant industry since she was sixteen years old.
Esa and I know each other from attending the same class at the City College of San Francisco’s Hotel & Restaurant Program . That’s also where Esa met her husband Josh Perez, who is currently the Chef De Cuisine at Foreign Cinema in San Francisco. Esa spent many years trying different businesses and in that process she kept thinking about her mother’s great pie recipe. Esa spent time perfecting her mother’s recipe and eventually began making pies professionally on her own. After some trials, different jobs, giving birth to her daughter, Esa and Josh founded Butter Love Bakeshop in the Outer Richmond District of San Francisco, CA.
Esa brings an array of different delicious baked items at her shop but also simultaneously continuing to support her community by providing groceries to the those in need and various charities. Esa also gives advice about being a business woman and knowing your worth.
Go visit Butter Love Bakeshop!
http://www.butterlovebakeshop.com
Show Notes
https://www.foodoriginspodcast.com
[Music] hi everyone I’m your host Dave Sans welcome to the food Origins podcast I’ll be talking to people about their unique stories with food and as a quick reminder the restaurants and gear talked about on each episode can be found on my website food Origins podcast.com I appreciate your support thanks for listening [Music] hey everyone welcome to another episode of the food Origins podcast today my guest is Issa Yan Brown she is the owner of butter love Bake Shop in San Francisco California we go way back um because we went to culinary school together at the City College of San Francisco’s hotel and restaurant program so we’ve known each other for quite some time and I appreciate her coming on sharing her story she started a couple businesses with some classmates um in the beginning then took her mom’s pie recipe started making pies turned that into a business and then eventually became the bake shop so we talk about that all the different treats all the different family interesting things that happened with there dealing with the pandemic um also her husband Josh who’s a chef so he shares we share some of that of his stories and his uh influence in her in her life in her career and Josh is a great cook as well so shout out to everyone uh for listening I appreciate you guys coming on and enjoy the [Music] episode boom we’re live okay hi Isa hi finally I’m so glad you’re here and I appreciate your time for coming on the podcast I know it’s really hard to lock me down isn’t it it’s okay I’m here with EA a good friend of mine we go way back um we both grew up in San Francisco but we went to the City College of San Francisco’s hotel and restaurant program you can ignore the San Francisco Fire Department going by um we are on location at her bake shop butter love bake shop and uh Isa why don’t you just introduce yourself and give us a little background and we’ll go from there uh sure um my name is Issa Yan Brown um I grew up in San Francisco um I did go to City College uh the hotel and restaurant program there um I worked in um I’ve worked in bed and breakfast catering and restaurants uh primarily up until my daughter was born um and then um I did underground markets um while I was working in an office after she was born um underground markets tell us about the underground markets well there was I don’t know if anybody remembers it in the city but there was a brief period of time where underground markets um started popping up and um they were made legal by cover charges um so that it was considered sort of a private event and so you could have like Cottage uh industry people doing things out of their home um sort of having booths similar to a farmers market um but we didn’t have any like professional kitchens um I did it primarily out of my house um and uh it was it’s it was a launching pad for you know testing out having a business it was a good way to kind of um just sort of see what expectations had to be met to be able to take that next step um it was shut down a couple years later by the city um Health Department um and I think also the city shut it down because you know they couldn’t charge for permits and stuff like that so right there was one that I particip participated in that stayed open longer which I’m kind of forgetting the name at the moment but it was because they did a lot of it uh a lot of the income went to charity so that one was allowed to stay functioning and it was a it was a good way for I mean there’s a couple other businesses that that are still alive in the city that came up in that same format like and you started cooking pretty pretty young too right I started working in restaurants when I was 15 yeah yeah okay um my first job was not cooking it I I did like I was a preschool assistant and I and I prepared lunch and snack for the kids um but then um my my second like my real job my first real job was over the summer um right after my sophomore year in high school and I worked at Greens restaurant oh yeah um and P Mason mhm yeah okay my dad and my mom but my dad primarily he’s he’s a Zen Buddhist and he um was part of the Zen Center um when greens actually opened and he he helped build that Driftwood structure in the dining room oh wow and so he still knew Annie Somerville so did my mom and so I had expressed being interested in going into cooking as a profession uh when we were starting the process of talking about like what am I going to do for college and stuff like that and so they were like well I don’t let’s see if we can get you a job to see if you even like it and so I got a job working at their Togo counter and I was their youngest employee ever at that point wow um and then I did volunteer work in the kitchen and so I did basically I did prep work I cut lots of fruits and vegetables um and then once a week I got to do um a project with the chef like so that I could learn something since I was giving them my time for free and then I uh would work the um the pantry uh station for dinner up until 9:00 when my parents said I had to go home so that was my introduction into the restaurant world and surprisingly I wanted to stay in it so when I graduated from high school I went to ccsf yeah and then just a inside track is your parents love cookbooks right and you know I’ve met them and talked to them and stuff about it but like tell us about that they they have probably I don’t know how many 500 cookbooks probably more by now and it’s kind of their like hobby right yeah well um but it comes into all the family cooking and traditions and stuff right yeah so I mean food tradition in my family is pretty strong I mean probably as strong as it gets um my parents met working in a restaurant um my mom was working in front of the house and my dad was like a short order cook at the time um in San Francisco and they didn’t stay in the food industry um but um they both always really had a like my my mom was a big like was big into the slow food movement of the 70s so everything was made from scratch my dad was super into baking bread um at the Zen Center he did a lot of the bread baking there their first date he brought like a fresh loaf of bread and my mom was like I’m marrying this man that’s awesome and um and you know even my grandparents have big food history yeah on my dad’s side um their family owned a grocery store um in New Jersey and then um on my mom’s side my grandfather was um in the Army and he was a um a baker and electrician in the Army and um my grandmother was he was stationed in the Philippines and my grandmother was from a really poor family and he would bring them like uh food when he visited and like brought them like an entire sheet cake which they had never seen something so luxurious in their life and so she was like well this is the guy for me I will never be hungry ever again wow um and so yeah so food food is a big um part of our family and what’s your what’s your parents background what are their ethnicity um my mom is um she’s half Filipino and um the other half is um her my grandfather was from the us but he was uh German uh American Pennsylvanian Dutch um and yeah and then on the Filipino side there’s some Spanish Heritage as well so that’s my mom’s side um my dad um his dad’s side was um Russian Jewish um and they they’re from an area uh right on the border of Mongolia so there’s a little bit of like Mongolian mixed in um my great grandfa my great great-grandfather looked very Asian um in photos that we have and then um on my on my dad’s mom’s side my Nana was um she was a mix of French and Irish got it that’s awesome mix yeah it’s um there’s about eight different things in there yeah no and um and that kind of kind of curtails right into you know what you grew up eating and from what I remember you always telling me was that you know the the holiday slam meals were always um probably 99% from scratch pretty much like there was not you know anything out of a can anything that was you know yeah the only canned items we had in the house were were uh Bonito fish which was instead of tuna cuz it was like dolphin safe and then um canned tomatoes and then uh sweet anded condensed milk and evaporated milk occasionally for like uh traditional like holiday desserts yeah so like what did you what did you eat growing up what was like your you know some of your childhood meals and then you can get into some of the big family meals um it like really evolved over time but I would say when I was like really young my parents were mostly vegetarian um and uh my M we had pretty much rice and broccoli at every meal and then um the protein was usually like tofu or occasionally chicken um I’d say we ate like red meat like maybe once a month uh it was kind of like special yeah um usually you know pretty simple quick uh stir-fried things lots of vegetables um and then as my mom got more experimental it got a little bit more exciting but one of our um weekly meals was like tofu tacos um and then um my mom always my my parents always Made bread you know um so homemade bread was like always around and they got really into sourdough when I was in high school oh that’s awesome it was but it was also kind of funny because like I’m in high school and like I had to my mom had the the starter in the front seat of the car and I’d have to sit in the back cuz she’s like you know driving around with it all day make she’s pay attention to it oh my gosh yeah I my wife wants me to start and I was like I don’t know if I’m ready for that yet my husband makes amazing sour over let’s talk about Josh real quick um he is married to a chef as well and you guys met at uh the through the city college program yeah uh tell us a little bit about Josh um well yeah we met at city college he was a semester ahead of us um and um and then he also took a semester off at one point uh to do some traveling and then he came back and was like in our class for like 2 weeks and then he dropped out um because he got the job that he really wanted which was at uh at the time which was at zi the cafe very nice yeah and he was there for a couple years um we met in school and we were I would say uh sort of acquaintance friends in school like we met and we definitely had a connection right away um I think we were like dating other people it so it wasn’t you know if there was a crush it was definitely kept to ourselves but um we chatted a lot and then um and then I ran into him maybe eight months after graduation um and he was working at the at uh zi Cafe um and uh I went in there for brunch right before doing like a catering job and um and I was like oh I always really like that guy and um and I and we had to leave in a hurry and I didn’t get to say goodbye and I was like I spent the whole next day like tracking down his phone number and then I like I asked him out the first and last guy I’ve ever asked out awesome and um yep and what is it it’ll be 20 years married in October and uh 24 years together congrats so crazy that much time has gone by right yeah and Josh has had some cool spots he’s worked at some really cool restaurants right yeah he has um like um he pre pandemic his last job was um the chef to cuisine at um Slanted Door and um he most recently was working at Aiza um he’s worked um do you work at UH Waterfront or no I worked at the waterfront there you go sorry yeah that was my first um pastry job okay um and I worked as a pastry assistant there yeah like in my like very early 20s yeah okay I lived in North Beach so I could walk to work that’s awesome yeah and then let’s get into your career so that is that your first real kind of restaurant position that was my first other than greens um that was my first Restaurant pastry position uh when I first went into school I was actually more interested in going into Savory um and uh being like a cook a chef yeah um and as school progressed and I had different um little jobs and um stuff I realized that I really had a knack and a love for baking yeah more so than cooking um I still love to cook um and I still have retained like you know like my knife skills and stuff so I can go into Savory cooking I can I can cook um it’s just that I pref I prefer the pace um of baking yeah and I like I like the [Music] um I like that almost everything is made out of like five ingredients yeah and it’s just about being like really really creative with how you use those ingredients and and um I like the the process of like um thinking it out ahead of time and um sort of the plotting out my day like the timing and yeah it’s just a different pace you can’t it it’s really hard to fix things when you bake like that’s what I was going to ask it’s it’s not as forgiving it’s more meticulous like uh cooking is um you know requires just as much like planning and like prep and all of that um but definitely if something goes Ary you have a little bit more forgiveness in that you can change gears and and switch it up um it’s a faster Pace um not for everybody like I it’s not really for me I find it like chaotic and stressful it is um I agree some people are really attracted to that um I um yeah some people like the rush yeah I like the meticulous like timing of things um I I wouldn’t say I still work out a pace of a Savory cook cuz that’s how I was trained yeah so I went into a lot of baking positions and was always like the fastest moving person uh when I was younger now I’m a little slower but shout out to shout out to the hotel and restaurant program they really gave us a nice base cuz it wasn’t just oh you’re only trained in like if you had a thing that you like like you weren’t just trained pastry you had we did soups we did breakfast we did we even did the front of the house which I of the house is important um I think some of the training is lacking now I don’t think I would have discovered I mean I baked at home and I liked it but I don’t think I would have discovered how much I liked doing it professionally if I hadn’t been in an environment where we learned how to do a little bit of everything yeah I also think that you know um places and I try to do it here here cuz we’re so small we can um I think it it’s important to know how important each job is in a restaurant or Bakery [Music] um I think that the more staff appreciates what other people are doing the more um cohesive Everything is Everything gels together yeah like if somebody realizes how important the dishwasher is because it’s really hard work and if it’s not done then everyone’s screwed um and you know if if the pastry people realize how hard the people on the line work and the people on the line realize how hard the pastry people work I think there’s just like a lot more appreciation all around yeah and and that and yeah it’s just it’s just it’s an equation everything gets added in there’s a you know if it the bigger the operation the more important each person is like if that’s a sauce person that’s a soup person that’s a salad that’s breakfast you’re doing lunch if you’re the you know the grill guy and then you’re the pasta guy right all the way down to dessert catering and and waiters um like at our Bakery the the counter job I mean I love working the counter you know once a week yeah cuz I like connecting with the customers we have a very neighborhoody space like um we know the names of a lot of our customers um but it’s like exhausting for me uh not not physically it’s just I’m I’m a hide in the back kind of girl like I’m very introverted I mean I know you very well so like it’s easy to sit oneon-one and chat but you know like talking to people all day it’s that’s hard that’s hard work yeah and I appreciate um the type of people that are good at that like um I can do it for like a day but I it’s hard to do every day I couldn’t I don’t think I could do it every day and be a happy person [Laughter] well as long as you’re baking that’ll that’ll keep you happy and yeah let’s get into we got a little bit of noise but we’ll ignore it let’s get into how you started butter love bake shop you know we’ll get right into it I mean I usually go into some of your child child eats that you didn’t like but it sounds like you had an awesome like there Wen a lot of things array of food you know yeah and and exposure I should say yeah yeah yeah um yeah I I was exposed to a lot of different types of food from a pretty young age and I was also not a picky eater at all so I don’t know if that was by Design with my parents or if I just am not that personality like I’m willing to try pretty much anything um at least once uh foodwise and um yeah the so our Bakery came about because initially after my daughter was born um I was injured when she was born um and um and she spent time in the ncu so it was a rough it was a rough birth and um and I had a really hard time standing and working um long hours uh I was in I had a lot of pain for a long time okay um and um so I stopped working in restaurants um and it was a hard decision but it was like do I push through like being in pain all the time time and pay pretty much my entire salary to pay somebody else to raise my daughter who I nearly lost you know in the very start of things or do I like kind of rethink this so I took a job part-time in an office once I my maternity leave was over um so my daughter was about five or six months at that time and I was working 4 days a week uh 4 hours a day and making the same amount of money that I could could in a restaurant which really says a lot right it does um and I had um and then at some point my husband was laid off and I started working full-time and and it wasn’t a job I enjoyed it was data processing it wasn’t exciting it was soul sucking L boring and for a creative person who’s always had like a physical job it was really difficult but they were a really good company and it had amazing benefits and you know it I wasn’t that great at it they were pretty patient with me but um you know it allowed me to have a second child and we had um we were able to have good insurance and my husband had time to get the job he wanted next and so it was a good investment um from that standpoint emotionally it was really challenging um so to sort of combat that feeling of like you know oh I hate this job I started doing um things on the side for just Word of Mouth for people um and because of the people I was engaged with at the time because I had these young kids people were always asking for things like birthday cakes and like uh wanted these like you know fondant covered cakes that are designed to look like toys or whatever right which I just I really yeah hate doing there’s that certain show that was showing all that and yeah no I mean I appr good at it too yeah I appreciate how much work goes into those things um and I was capable of doing it but I that is just not my style you know like I’d rather the food be the the show not the not it correct looking like something and I have EA to think she made me a birthday cake long time ago and um it was exactly it was like she’s like what do you want I said I can’t stand butter cream I was like I just don’t like the taste of it I just feel like it’s not I don’t know what it is about buttercream it just it’s not my thing that’s not my either and I was like can you just make it with whipped cream so it like tastes better and then you know just do whatever you know make it uh I don’t even I did strawberries or something I don’t remember but you made the cake and was so good you know so like I was like Issa is really good Baker like you brought it and everyone was like did she just she made that I’m like yeah it’s fantastic I was like we went to color school together and they’re like oh wow okay and then and then you know that always was in the back of my mind that you could just whip that out and I was like if she ever does baking it’s going to just be fine she’ll be fine she’ll take off and and no problem and I was kind of working in the mission and I kind of caught up with you again years ago when I was uh working in the mission and I was like hey you’re selling pies at uh I think it’s on the old record store um that that was it they turned it it was discolandia and they turned it into Pig and pie yeah yeah yeah is that where did you start so how did the the pie thing I know the I know there’s a there’s a big I read about the pie so this is a vast there a Gap yeah so tell us tell us fill in the gap for us yeah yeah so um I wasn’t enjoying doing these like random things um and my husband pointed out to me he was like he was like you have a job you don’t have to do this so if you’re going to do it just bake the things you really like to bake and you know people will come basically yeah and I mean Josh has really been like the voice of reason a number of times cuz I tend to like be like think about all the possibilities and he’s like why just do exactly what you like to do what do you what’s your favorite you know and I was like I really like pie you know and the only place I can get a good piece of pie is if I go get one from my mom and so and so I you know practiced doing my mom’s pyo and I got really good at it and um and it took some time you know like I mean I was always okay at it you know but to get it like perfect with all butter that’s that takes time skill um um and so you know I practiced with my mom and you know um I did I baked a lot of pie for our house yeah and then um I started selling them word to mouth and um they got really popular a lot faster than I expected and someone started people started writing Yelp reviews about issa’s pie and so I had to come up with a name because I was people were writing Yelp reviews about me and just calling it Isa pie um and so Josh again was like well you know what do you love and I was like I love butter so I was like ah butter love yeah and so that was the invention of butter love and that happened um over like a six-month period you know when when my daughter was like an infant um and I was baking so I got to the point where I was baking pies for people um in you know my off time so I would go to work uh and then it it it really developed once my I was pregnant with my son so a few years later so I’d go to work uh work a full day I’d race home go pick my daughter up from preschool get her fed and to bed and then at like 9:00 at night I’d start baking and I’d bake to like 1:00 a.m. and then like Josh would go deliver the pies in the morning uh to people cuz he didn’t start work till the like you know just afternoon um and so it got ridiculous and at some point Josh had to be like listen he’s like I would never ever dare tell you what to do um except for the fact that you’re carrying our child right now and you need to have a little bit more rest and I was like um I was like okay I got it you know so I took 6 months off and I started again once our son was born um and he was probably about 4 months old when I started again and it was just sort of an addiction like I I didn’t love what I was doing at work it was born B Ing and so I needed to have that creative Outlet or you know if I don’t have a creative Outlet I get really kind of depressed you know it’s I need to have something creative or problem solving going all the time you know that’s just sort of it’s kind of therapeutic brain it’s just my brain is on all the time when I’m awake even sometimes when I’m asleep and and I have ideas constantly and it’s maybe even a little bit manic um and what ends up being actually physically baked is the edited version of like all that’s going on in there so the counter is at our Bakery is like a a reflection of my brain it’s just like I’ve always got something going on and new ideas and I have to kind of pair it down all the time that’s awesome you would know cuz I have a fairly calm demeaner outside but my brain is just firing all cylinders yeah yeah so yeah so it went from doing direct deliveries to um underground markets and then the those got shut down and then um I got laid off in 2010 um and uh like a lot of people in office jobs um and I was like oh my god this is my job now and I a few months after getting laid off I was approached by the New York Times because they had heard about my pie and they were writing a feature on um pies are the new cupcakes which I don’t know that’s if that really was true but um they did become really popular for a minute um and so I was one of the pie makers they wanted to feature um so in a couple weeks time I got my business license I found a kitchen to rent cuz I was like oh crap I’m going to be written about like in a pretty widespread you know publication I better like sure that I am doing this legally yeah it’s the biggest newspaper in the country yeah um so yeah so that they the article came out like two weeks before Thanksgiving I was flooded with orders and it was just me and so I made 62 pies and that was all I could do um I turned away probably like 300 orders um and so that was sort of the real birth of butter love big shop it was all already going but that was when it became like a legitimate business you’re like okay I need to find a spot and get this kitchen going yeah so it was sort of like you know was laid off I had you know just been back from maternity leave for a couple months so I had like $300 in my savings like I really had to make it work um I mean my husband had a job we were able to pay bills but like um we didn’t have a lot of extra to start a business but I did with nothing um and so yeah it kind of took off uh right away and I did I did Direct Delivery I did wholesale and I did farmers markets for quite a few years and then I got kind of sick of it I W I was always trying to have a storefront um and I just kept growing in directions that I wasn’t that interested in like people wanted me to do like corporate catering and I didn’t really want to do that and people wanted me to do um right at the start of all these delivery servic say like good good eggs was just starting um I tried that out for a minute and I didn’t really like that I liked having more control over you know your product yeah or how much I was going to be ordering or you know how much orders I was going to be taking it was just it was a little bit chaotic at the moment because they were they were just getting started too yeah um and so I did all the deliveries myself and yeah it was just it was exhausting um and I never I always was working within my me means like I never lost any money but I wasn’t able to save anything and so um I took a year and a half off uh to work for other people and to write a business plan and um I stocked the place I have now for like 3 years oh wow and one and a half of those years was when I was off and they finally put it up for they were going to sell their business so I was like I went to my husband and I was like Hey like I think this might be our opportunity um it’s in our neighborhood we live right here the kids are like walkable distance from work you know um in school and so I was like this this is like Kismet it’s like meant to be and so like we went for it it was was scary cuz you know signing leases and stuff is a lot more than like you know being in a farmers market stall and and renting space in someone else’s kitchen so this is my kitchen and all official opening of butter love here is when when did you guys open it was 20 16 is when we took the lease I think January of 2016 was when it started maybe it’s 2017 can’t remember but yeah it’s six been six and a half years we’ve been here yeah it’s awesome and you have quite the menu so I’m going to I made a short short list but it took up the whole page and this is just some of the things and then Issa can chime in cuz there’s plenty more but like I’ll just go over just some of the things you have that are showing up at the front counter and I’ve tried maybe half of these but like obviously pies you have apple pecan pumpkin and then probably seasonal fruit scones Savory and sweet and fruit you got croissants Donuts cookies chicken pot pie which is my favorite uh you do those on Fridays I think right we do them on Saturday and Sunday Saturdays and Sundays on the weekends now I saw that you did a corn chowder pot pie which is really cool Cherry cuppies breakfast Pockets kiche Rice Krispies brownies cupcakes churros Irish uh P Porter cake Hot Cross Buns uh even did something for the Ukraine honey cookies muffins fritters yeah so a lot of some of stuff that you’re mentioning is like things that we did for special things like um raising money for different charities we try to stay a really big part of the community um when um the when quarantine first started mhm um we didn’t get the PPP loan the first round we got it the second round so there was a two-month Gap where I was starting to pay my employees from my savings and I wasn’t paying myself and I was getting really nervous and I put up a GoFundMe page which was really hard for me because I was like you know why how can I ask people to pay my employees for me like that feels wrong you know um but I was desperate to keep my employees in a safe place like and I didn’t want them to have to work if they didn’t feel safe and uh we were working with a really skeleton staff because you know some people didn’t feel safe enough to work I mean none of us really felt safe enough to work but we tried to make it as safe as possible um before any of the mandated things came up we turned into a takeout only thing and the neighborhood really stepped up and donated a lot to our GoFundMe page but then we got our check then in within two months and so I felt like I can’t just um I can’t just keep this money you know like I mean they donated it to us for good reason but it but I didn’t feel right at that point so I turned the GoFundMe page and into and I contacted everyone or I let everyone know that I was going to use it to provide groceries okay for the neighborhood for PE and no questions asked it was a lottery system and when I ran out of the GoFundMe money I had people continue to donate um so we did um we fed uh probably 250 families over a 10-month period um and unlike you know food banks and stuff we didn’t require them proof to provide proof right we just said this is yeah I was like it’s nobody will know that you didn’t pay for it even my staff didn’t know which bags were paid for and which ones weren’t um some people were just buying groceries from us um cuz we were able to get things in bulk and like break it down a lot of a lot of uh restaurants and bakeries did stuff like this um we would get raw ingredients and break them up into smaller portions um um and so no the names on the back were put on the bags but nobody knew whether they were donation bags or paid for bags except for me I was the only person that ever had access to that information so and I made sure people knew that so that like even friends and family could ask for food if they needed it I said there’s nobody if I if I can give you food I’ll give you food like this is a a crazy time and I felt so like protected by our community that I felt like I had to give it back you know yeah and that’s really awesome it was just it was such a nice I I got I got thank you letters and um I feel like it our goal when we opened was to not just be a bakery but to be like part of the community and be a community Hub and a place where people felt welcome and tolerated yeah you’re serving the people I me yeah we were to we were tolerant to anybody and everybody who was came with kindness in their hearts you know and um and I feel like we achieved I I felt like oh we’ve achieved that goal right the fact that nobody let us die in this situation you know metaphorically like our business didn’t didn’t go under I think like good good all the good that you do is I think always weighs out like your chances like the more more good you’re doing I think like always is you know it’s going to help you out in some way you know yeah I mean I don’t that wasn’t I mean that wasn’t why I did it um no but you had like great intentions like you know yeah well I try you know like I I I always feel like I’m not doing quite enough you know but it’s what I can manage um and then and Josh you know my voice of reason always is always like why are you so worried about the people you didn’t feed like you fed so many others you know and I just like but there were so many people like showing up and I didn’t have any more to give and I would get really upset sure um but yeah I and then so yeah we did um for pride month we did did uh Rice Krispie Treat rainbow Rice Krispy treats and donated we I haven’t written the check yet but we’re donating to um uh like immigration um equality which is a organization that um helps uh the LBGTQ Community who are trying to immigrate um stay together and um you know a lot of people don’t think about that side of things like not all countries are Rec recognize people as a family yeah if they’re not you know a traditional um man and woman married right so that can displace a lot of people like kids and and family members so yeah um that was our most recent thing and um you know during the holidays we always adopt a family and yeah so and then of course a ton of Pies come out come out on that time for sure so I’m actually looking forward this this is the first time that we will have like two ovens instead of one yeah the most pies that we ever did in like a 3-day Thanksgiving period was like over 500 it was like 600 something wow in one oven wow and so now we have too yeah I’m so excited it’ll be a lot easier um yeah and then if you need more you can do more yeah so our capacity has increased a little bit I mean we’re still a really small space so we’ll see how that works but um yeah we have a little extra a little extra wiggle room with the oven space now yeah um but yeah so all the items you mentioned um some of them are seasonal um like we only do the hot cross buns during like Easter time and um and yeah uh the the pies are all seasonal as well so like pumpkin and pecan is usually done more during the holiday season When there’s less fruit available right now we’ve got like um peaches nectarines like all the stone fruit um berries and what is your favorite on the menu um what are isa’s favorites it’s really hard uh to choose cuz they’re all like like things that I like sure right um pie is definitely my favorite all time and cookies cookies and Pie um I always joke that it’s a good thing I didn’t open a cookie company or I’d be like you know 500 lb um and I’m already not a spelt person um so uh I I don’t allow myself to eat cookies unless I have to try them for some reason like if it’s a new re um but the pies are my favorite um overall and anything in a pie crust um and I like fruit pie best so whatever is in season like the best fruit that’s my favorite yeah and they’re really good by the way thank you um anything I like is there anything that you’re making that’s kind of a staple cuz I know I I mentioned a lot of special stuff you have a lot of Staples right you have a lot of things that you um make pretty much on a daily basis right yeah so we always have whole pies we always have kiche we always have three types of scones two sweet one Savory uh we always have uh croissants um ham and cheese chocolate and butter croissants and then occasionally we’ll do like a special almond croissant um we always have uh muffins or we used to do Buckle which is a coffee cake in a muffin shape um but people just like muffins so we just we started doing muffins we do dut muffins which are my favorite of the muffins yeah that sounds good I haven’t had one of those yet they’re really good um a little bit bad for you um it is donut it’s a muffin that’s that is rolled in butter and then melted butter and then in cinnamon sugar and the muffin itself also has like the taste of a um like an oldfashioned doughnut oh wow yeah so oh man yeah it’s really tasty and then uh some of them we fill with either Nutella or Jam um so like a filled dnut muffin I always tell people don’t listen to this podcast hungry you’re in deep trouble I know and then I just I you know I always go a little too far A little too and then a side note um awesome I mean um I always ask everyone is you know you’re here in San Francisco is there any local spots that you like that you want to shout out to them and give them a little oh let’s see I know there’s a lot but you know obviously um tell us what you like yeah um well obviously there’s people in our neighborhood um that that are part of our community um not all food like creative IQ um is they have art classes for kids and adults um I also have a lot of like a longtime relationship with the guys over over at FaZe video um they are a coffee shop gift shop and um you can still rent videos there um and uh Mike and Justin are some of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet and Mike is an artist and so he often features a lot of local art um I just some of my neighborhood favorites I really like like a if I go buy coffee instead of drinking ours um I like home um I also like um butterfly joint which is down the street from us they’re the the super nice people too um they actually do woodworking stuff and they opened a coffee shop on the side of their wood shop oh very cool yeah um let’s see uh gosh I feel like I’m leaving a whole lot of people out that’s okay do you have any so uh do you have any restaurants that you that you really like and they don’t have to be just here like is there any that you’re like oh my God this is a spot oh that’s so hard it is hard especially for us we have the experience but it’s also been two years of not really haven’t ate out a lot we we have always maintained ordering food out once a week so that we could like you know support yeah um well my husband was just most recently working at a Ziza and they’re in the neighborhood and their food is really good um and um and unique and their cocktails are really tasty um what kind of food is that a Ziza it’s uh Moroccan sort of Moroccan I think there’s it’s like an American twist to it okay um and then um I don’t know uh I always liked Slanted Door before my husband even was working there yeah I know I I I’m like going to choose all the restaurants he worked out because I ate at those places a lot when he was no but I I I totally agree with you I’ve been there I’ve been there when it was it the little spot in the mission on Valencia yeah me too um before like before it blew up um and Charles Nas I haven’t tried the sandwich shop yet but out out the door they have a new um B me place I’ve been wanting to try that but I’m always working but I’ve been meaning to try it um but I bet they’re really good yeah he’s got um trying to think of what it’s called but I’ll put it in the notes yeah um and let’s see um I don’t know like if you choose a category I can tell you like five different restaurants I like but when it’s so broad it’s so hard for I mean uh Asian um let’s see Asian for the neighborhood we like the volcano Curry um I also like going for ramen in Japan town and I’m trying to think of the name of the place and it’s like slipping my mind at the moment um where’s it located um is it like it’s in like the square uh near where the hardware store is um they only have like five different things like Ramen things they’re really good um and I don’t know why I’m blanking right now um let’s see I as far as like we have um I like rose India that’s in the Asian category I think MH still Asia yep yeah um and let’s see um you know we’re looking for a new Chinese place like we have a hard time like finding one these days like we used to have staple ones we always went to and I think a lot of things have closed so if anyone has any recommendations yeah kind of um do you like them Su you guys do dim Su yeah um dim suum we pick up um pretty regularly and then my husband’s been doing um he does steam buns sometimes at home so good ooh shout out to Josh that sounds really good yeah and he’s going to start playing around with milk bread and stuff too yeah I mean thanks for those and you know we’ll add some more if you think of any on offline or anything but is there anything um and then I always ask you know uh is there anything you’d want either anyone to um try like a dish that they should try or do you think um do you have a favorite recipe that you’re like H this is you know this is what you should try to make at home oh um well I mean I encourage people to try making pie at home uh I think people are really afraid of doing pies at home because of the fact that getting the dough just right is really challenging um I would say it’s even if you do a terrible job it’s still going to taste good it you know really the pido is about the texture so like don’t be afraid to to try it out you know um your first couple might not be great but it’s okay there shouldn’t be any fear attached to it you know like it’s all experimental like um you know I even you know I still do things at home you know try new things like all the time like you know my kids love it when I get into something that they really like like a few years ago I was like I am going to master you know spaghetti and meatballs and I like made it once a week for like 6 months until I got it exactly how I like it and um and they’re like oh no problem we’ll eat that yeah is there anything I didn’t ask you that too is um a lot of people you know started to cook during the pandemic cuz they were stuck at home you know we saw the most uh probably flow sold more than anything it’s ever sold in in a long time you know is there something that you and Josh kind of picked up you’re like oh we never made this let’s uh I was working full-time um and maybe a little extra um Josh actually came and worked in the bakery and so he did a lot more baking than he had ever done before he already knew how to do you know certain things like he’s always done bread and he’s good at that um uh but he became like a full-on full-fledged Baker so he could he could easily get a job as a baker if he really wanted to um I don’t think it’s what he wants to do time he likes cooking um but um he did like I mentioned before he started playing around with steam buns and he was making steam buns and he did a couple popups here at the shop which we’re hoping he’ll do again um in a few weeks o let me know yeah for sure I’m excited too um so he played around with that he he was home full-time during a year and a half of the pandemic um so he was like the stay-at-home dad dad and he took care of the kids and me um and he played around with a lot of stuff uh he got really good at making ramen um at home um he got really good at um sort of perfecting some of the dishes that he already knew how to make like he made would make fadeo which I don’t know if you’ve ever had that but it’s a Spanish dish um similar it’s kind of got similar concept as risoto but it’s um toasted thin uh noodles mhm um and then it’s served with like um like aoli and lemon so good oh that sounds really good try it out it’s fun um and then he um he did risotto and um he did a lot of uh Korean food which we had not ever really experimented with I still haven’t um I’ve just reaped the benefits of his experiment um so he did like Korean fried chicken and um love I love fried chicken in general and and like a bunch of stuff like that so yeah he he did a lot of playing with food I was just maintaining I was working a lot um and so I didn’t I didn’t experiment like a ton unfortunately but I’ve had my periods of time where I have um and then of course it’s always an outlet here yeah I was going to say you get to experience expent here like if you want to try yeah so we did a we did a lot of like um during parts of the pandemic we did things that we don’t normally do like I did uh kind of family meal type things you know so that people could pick it up easily and heat it up at home so we did like pizzas and um macaroni and cheese and stuff like that so yeah I played around with stuff like that and we did loaves of bread which we don’t normally do here because of the because we didn’t have space um oven space for that but uh we did loaves um of bread for a while cuz people were having a hard time getting bread mhm and not everybody wants to be a baker at home and I understand this is true this a commitment of a lot of time and then you um you know kind of we can close it out or give whatever you want to say is there any advice you want to give and then you know the floor is yours if you have any projects or anything new coming up uh let us know um yeah I I think I get asked a lot about um a lot by other women about starting their own business whether it’s in food or elsewhere um I am by know means an expert uh I do have a fair amount of experience over the years um and the biggest piece of advice that was given to me with starting a business and this isn’t just for women but women are the ones that that tend to gravitate toward asking me um is that you know recognize the things that you’re not good at early and pay people to do it for you there are things that like I am capable of doing but I’m not great at that once I paid someone else to do saved me a lot of money and time um cuz I could focus on other things that I was good at like for instance hiring a bookkeeper was like the best choice I ever made in my life you know and and it feels like you don’t have the money for these kinds of things but the amount of money she’s saved me in mistakes that I could have made or just the amount of time cuz my time is worthwhile also right you know if I can be using that time better then you know I should yeah so um she can do something in a lot less time than I can and it saves me a lot of money that’s great so it’s and that is advice that was given to me by my sister-in-law who also owns a business in the city and um and like it was some of the best advice I could have been given you know like I I just never really thought you know you think oh I’m starting a business I should just I should save money wherever I can and do everything myself but you know what don’t do everything yourself yeah we’re not good at everything nobody is like nobody can do 100% of what it takes to run a business it’s just not it’s it’s not easy um no it’s not and there’s a lot of hidden things that you just don’t realize are there so you know talk to lots of people get lots of advice you don’t have to take all of it but you know survey the situation before you jump in you know yeah that’s great thank you for that any anything else coming up that uh you got going on with the big shop um you said you got a popup coming that Josh is going to do and yeah I don’t have a date yet but um but he’s going to do a popup of of uh boughs in the back uh patio um which which is where we’re at yeah we’re you know it’s partially opened it’s open on the weekends right now but we’re going to try to have it be open full-time soon um so we have to clean it up a little bit more again um just but it’s a really nice space back here it is it’s very quiet and it’s sort of serene we have this tree that drops just a million leaves and so it makes it a little hard to maintain uh not being full of leaves but yeah but it’s it’s a it’s a you know we’re doing the podcast back here and it’s it’s great it’s got a nice little space it’s like somebody it’s like being in somebody’s backyard yeah yeah it’s quiet and and relaxing and very sheltered from wind and stuff which is nice to find in outer Richmond yeah perfect come visit Butter Love vake Shop in on bamboa and um here in San Francisco appreciate you Isa for coming on and oh thank you it’s great to see you yeah nice see you too all right take care everybody thanks for listening appreciate [Music] yall and as a quick reminder the restaurants and gear talked about on each episode can be found on my website food Origins podcast.com I appreciate your support and thanks for listening