We recently connected with Adrianna Zizzo and have shared our conversation below.
Adrianna , appreciate you joining us today. What were some of the most unexpected problems you’ve faced in your business and how did you resolve those issues?
COVID-19 threw the biggest curveball of all time. It felt almost instantaneous. Farmer’s Markets had shut down and Farmer’s Market delivery companies had started up. I was scrambling trying to get product, driving around town to find garlic and basil. It seemed that overnight, the stores had gone from fully stocked shelves to completely barren. I had an overwhelming amount of online orders coming in and deliveries that needed to be fulfilled and I couldn’t get product. However, the most difficult product to find was glass. People started taking the pandemic as an opportunity to can items. Every distributor I was using was completely out of stock. I’d place an order for jars and 4 months later they’d arrive and sometimes they’d mostly be broken. Or I’d order jars and they’d never show up. It was a struggle to have to find glass jars that already fit the labels I had. I was even offering money back for glass, I was so desperate. I think I switched jar styles three times during 2020, because I couldn’t get glass and the demand was just too high.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My parent’s owned an Italian restaurant for 15 years of my life. I was in my first year of college when they closed their restaurant. I needed a job and the only thing I knew how to do was be a server and cook in a kitchen. I got a job working at San Diego Brewing Company at 19 and completely immersed myself into the “beer world”. I went on to work for Karl Strauss as an Event Coordinator where I worked beer festivals. During that time I found myself falling in love with food as well and went to culinary school to study baking and pastry.
After I graduated, I realized I didn’t want to work in that industry any longer and went back to serving and eventually bartending. I worked downtown at a tiki bar called Cat Eye Club for many years and then picked up a second job at the High Dive. Throughout this entire time, I became a frequent shopper at my local Farmer’s Markets. I started to get to know vendors and really enjoyed the community. My roommate at the time kept telling me that I needed to start cooking again and that I should start a sauce business. She even called me the “sauce queen”. I noticed that there was not much Italian representation at the Farmer’s Market and I figured what better way to share my culture with others than with amazing Italian sauces inspired by family recipes. I started researching sauce recipes, asking family members how they make their sauces and watched how my dad made his sauce. I began to R&D sauce daily, to create unique sauces that represented not only my Sicilian culture, but also my love for food.
I told my bosses at both jobs about my new business venture, while also trying to keep a shift at both places to supplement my income as I got my business started. Both of my bosses generously offered up their kitchens as my commercial space to get my business started. I started going into High Dive’s kitchen at 12 am after their kitchen would close and work over night, cooking and bottling sauces til 6am. After a few sessions in the kitchen to get my bearings and perfect my sauce, it was ready to be sold. My very first market was on June 19th 2019 at North Park Farmer’s Market.
It’s crazy to think that the schooling and jobs I had leading up to now had set me up for what I am doing now. Working for Karl Strauss taught me how to organize and manage events, set-up and break down pop-up tents & booth set ups. High Dive and Cat Eye Club taught me marketing and promotion; being a bartender or server you want to promote your shifts and market yourself to get people to come and see you and support you. Going to culinary school taught me proper food safety and how to work in a small shared space.
I work very hard to keep my product inclusive. My best friend is Type 1 Diabetic and would always complain that store bought sauces have too much sugar in them. I wanted to create a product so high quality that it didn’t need any added sugars. Throughout the past three years, I’ve continued to create more sauces for people with all types of dietary restrictions. We make several Vegan styled sauces and even a nut-free pesto. I strive to create a product that everyone can trust and want everyone to be able to enjoy good quality food, without having to worry about the ingredients.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
The most effective way for me to grow my brand and build a clientele has been honesty, realness and having a high quality product. It’s tough selling a food product that sells for pennies on the dollar at places like Costco and Trader Joe’s. It’s tough selling a food product in general, especially in a foodie city like San Diego. I am incredibly proud of the product I put out and would not sell something that I would not consume myself. Having a culinary background, I love to give my customers meal ideas and every time I tell them how I use my sauces in daily life their eyes light up and you can literally see their minds being blown. I tell them to “get weird” in the kitchen, because there are no rules! I work really hard to create a product that anyone can use, whether they enjoy cooking or not. It’s a ready-to-eat product that can be enjoyed by just about everyone.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
Consistency is key. I started really getting into our social media presence during the pandemic. I had a lot of time on my hands and a lot of sauce that needed to be sold. I started making video tutorials showcasing ways to use our sauces in other ways besides over pasta. I’ve always been really into graphic design and editing, so creating videos was a breeze. It was getting in front of the camera and talking to no one which was the hard part. Once I got past the weirdness of talking to myself in the kitchen, everything came together. Reels and Tik Tok had started to become more popular than 5 minute long “episodes” on my instagram page. So I started creating short 15-30 second videos. It’s weirdly more time consuming to make shorter videos than it is to make long ones. I did a lot of research on hashtags, how to generate more views and what times are best to post content. I even paid for advertising on Instagram and Facebook, just to get more exposure.
Now, I schedule posts and have certain time frames in which I post content. I’m still learning the ropes, but we have had quite a bit of positive feedback and even generated sales because of our videos and posts, so I know I’m doing something right! I keep it fun and light hearted. People really enjoy watching myself and Kendra (best friend and coworker) in the kitchen producing our product. People will come up to me at the Farmer’s Market and tell me that they stumbled upon our Tik Tok and had to come try our sauces.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.notyournonnassauce.com
- Instagram: notyournonnas_sd
- Facebook: notyournonnas
- Other: Tik Tik: notyournonnas
Image Credits
Arlene Ibarra Jake Columna