Lizz Fabozzi is the heart behind the adored Crafted Cup coffee truck. After falling in love with the coffee industry, Lizz’s passion for coffee became a pathway to fostering community and building genuine relationships with those around her.
What started as a mobile coffee trailer has grown into more than just a business—it’s the embodiment of the community spirit that makes Sonoma County so special.
In this interview, Lizz shares how Crafted Cup has found a home in SOMO Village, her challenges in building a small business, and her dream of opening a brick-and-mortar coffee shop and creating a welcoming space where people can slow down and reconnect.
Lizz Fabozzi: I’ve lived in Sonoma County for almost 15 years. I have a 10-year-old son, and he’s everything to me. I actually got started in the coffee industry before he was born, back when I was in college.
I’ve always been drawn to the coffee industry because it’s a great way to connect with the community. You see the same people all the time and learn about their lives. I love that experience. You get to know people, their grandkids, their stories, if they’re engaged, or if they got a promotion. You get all these tidbits of people’s lives, and it’s really cool.
I’ve always wanted to open up my own business, but it’s really hard to just jump into brick and mortar unless you have a lot of financial backing, which I did not. So, we started Crafted Cup with the mobile coffee trailer. We’ve done a bunch of coffee events and learned what works and what doesn’t work.
Our goal is to eventually open a brick-and-mortar coffee shop because you get more of a community vibe. It’s nice when we’re able to see the same people over and over. With mobile, you just don’t get that as much.
My dream would be something a little funky and super comfortable. I feel like coffee shops used to be such a great place to hang out. As the business model has changed, it’s really become about the turnaround. Coffee shops have become less comfortable because they want people to come in, get their coffee, and go.
I want the opposite of that. I want people to come hang out. I want to make it comfy, and somewhere people want to be. I want to host book clubs and open mic nights. I miss all of that. It feels like it’s so lost now.
Coffee shops are such community staples when they’re done right, and that’s what I envision for ours.
We’ve seen a whole variety of people by being a mobile coffee business. Last year, we booked every event we could to get as much exposure as possible. When you’re doing that, you don’t get to see as many of the same people.
There are so many great local Farmer’s Markets in the area we wanted to be a part of. The cool thing is that last year, we got into the Healdsburg Farmer’s Market, which happens every Saturday from April through December, and we slowly started to see some of the same people.
And now we have a whole Healdsburg following that comes and sees us every Saturday. We get to talk to people about their trips, and we know people’s names and their drinks even though we see them once a week.
Mobile is very different from a coffee shop, which is why I lean more towards opening a coffee shop in the long term. I want the community aspect and a place where people can come together.
It’s been really fun being at SOMO Village because we’re getting tidbits of that. People can come to see us regularly when they’re meeting their friends or walking their dogs. That’s my favorite part.
The coffee we serve is from Sunshine Coffee Roasters based out of Forestville, California, so they are local. It’s all organic and fair trade. All the good stuff you’d want in your coffee. The espresso is really good. It has a clean, fresh flavor, and it doesn’t taste bitter.
We’re surrounded by so many great coffee roasters in Sonoma County. Once we have a brick-and-mortar shop, I’d love to showcase different local coffee roasters. I think this is another great way for coffee to help bring the community together and foster that link between people and the place where they live.
As far as all our products go, we always try to source organic and local whenever possible. We try to make things as healthy as possible. If I wouldn’t eat it or give it to my son, I wouldn’t offer it.
Even beyond the ingredients we use, we genuinely care about people. We try to do a lot for the locals in our community, like teacher appreciation. The goal is once we have a brick-and-mortar location, we can use the trailer for more community outreach.
There have been multiple challenges we’ve faced starting our business. The coffee trailer we currently have is actually our second one. The first one we bought got destroyed when it was being transported over. I was crushed. I was ready to shut it all down before it even really got started.
Luckily, I found Hudson Trailer Company based out of New York. I contacted them and asked them to make me a coffee trailer. And now that’s something that they offer. That was probably the roughest moment. I almost threw in the towel.
As far as the highs go, I think there are a lot of them. Like I said, I just love the moments when we connect with people. I’ve met some phenomenal people through doing this, and they’ve become friends.
Being at SOMO happened a bit randomly. We were at a different location that was more office-focused before, and it wasn’t the best fit for us. We had a regular who lived by SOMO who found our Instagram. She talked to someone at SOMO, and they really wanted a coffee shop. So, I reached out and met with Maciej Plich at SOMO Village. It was just really convenient!
I’ve had a really good feeling about being at Rohnert Park for quite a while. I went to school in Rohnert Park, and during that time, there wasn’t much of a community or downtown core.
Now that SOMO Village is building there, a real community center is starting to come together. It’s going to be the community that everyone wants. It’s so exciting for Crafted Cup to be a part of this on the ground floor as the community is built up.
We are usually at SOMO Village Tuesday to Friday from 7:30 am to 12:30 pm. If we ever book events and can’t be there, we post about it on Instagram and leave a sign so people know. Check out our Instagram @craftedcup.co for all the updates.
If you’re interested in living in a sustainable community that fuses the best of city living with the country lifestyle and all the amazing things that Sonoma County has to offer, we invite you to visit SOMO Village. To learn more, download our residential project brief or get in touch with us today.