After 25 years of turning heirloom beans into a beloved specialty food brand, founder Steve Sando has brought Rancho Gordo to Main Street in Napa—this time, in a building of its own.
Beans Arrive on Main Street
After more than two decades of building Rancho Gordo, Steve Sando was ready for the business to have a permanent home of its own.
“After all these years of being this obscure niche product, I thought, what if beans arrive on Main Street, literally and figuratively?” Sando says. “Wouldn’t that be the coolest thing?”
In February 2026, they did.
Rancho Gordo opened the doors to its new home at 1350 Main Street in downtown Napa, a 4,366-square-foot retail and office space purchased by the company after years of operating from leased locations.
Built in 1930, the building has a long history in downtown Napa, having housed a butcher shop, general store, hardware store and, more recently, the locally known Shackford’s Kitchen Supply.
For Sando, bringing Rancho Gordo there felt fitting.
“I thought it was time,” he says. “I should own a building.”
From a Backyard Garden to Rancho Gordo
Owning a building on Main Street would have seemed unlikely when Sando began experimenting with gardening around the time he turned 40.
At the time, he wasn’t planning on becoming an entrepreneur. He was trying to figure out what came next.
“I remember thinking I was a screw up and that all these different jobs I’d had didn’t work,” Sando recalls. “I thought, you know what, just get a job at Target and get a garden and you’ll be okay.”
The garden stuck.
Sando eventually began growing heirloom beans and was captivated not only by their flavor, but by their history and place in the food traditions of the Americas.
“I grew up with commodity beans, and to eat heirlooms that had these incredible flavors was like, why are we not even eating this food?” he says. “They’re indigenous to the Americas. It’s our food. It should be our culture.”
That fascination became Rancho Gordo.
Sando began selling beans at farmers markets throughout Northern California, introducing customers to varieties many had never encountered before. One early interaction gave him confidence that he was onto something.
Chef Thomas Keller of The French Laundry stopped at Sando’s farmers market booth and told him, “What you’re doing is very important.”
Sando took the message to heart. While others talked about health trends or marketing angles, he focused on flavor. In the years that followed, Rancho Gordo built a devoted following among chefs, home cooks and food writers who shared that passion.
“We’re not an e-commerce company. We’re a bean company,” Sando says.
That focus has helped create an unusually strong community around the brand. Rancho Gordo’s Bean Club, started in 2013 as a playful take on Napa’s wine clubs, now has more than 32,000 members receiving quarterly shipments, with a waitlist of customers eager to join.
Finding a Permanent Home
As Rancho Gordo evolved, Sando began thinking about what he wanted for the company’s future.
For years, it operated from an industrial warehouse space that served its purpose but didn’t fully reflect what the business had become. Sando wanted a permanent home that connected Rancho Gordo more visibly to the Napa community where it began.
The Main Street property offered that chance: a central location, room for both retail and office operations, and the freedom that comes with ownership.
“There’s a level of security knowing that it’s ours and it won’t be taken away,” Sando says. “We don’t have a whimsical landlord who could change things.”
Purchasing the property and preparing the building for Rancho Gordo’s next chapter required a significant investment. The building purchase totaled $1.975 million, with nearly $894,000 in tenant improvements.
Working with TMC Financing, Evelynn Porter, Yvonne Caro and the team at Poppy Bank, Rancho Gordo used the SBA 504 loan program to finance the project with 10% down and long-term, fixed-rate financing over 25 years.
For Sando, who had historically been reluctant to borrow, the project changed his perspective.
“It was a great tool that we wanted to take advantage of,” he says. “I don’t know if I could have done it without it.”
“Steve spent decades building Rancho Gordo in Napa, and now he owns a permanent home for the business in the community where it began,” says Jennifer Davis, who administered the SBA 504 Loan on behalf of TMC Financing. “The SBA 504 program helped make that possible by providing affordable, long-term financing that preserved working capital for the business. It’s rewarding to help entrepreneurs like Steve invest not only in their companies, but in the communities they serve.”
Investing in Napa—and the Future
Since opening on Main Street, Rancho Gordo has seen a significant increase in retail activity. But the investment goes beyond the storefront.
The company currently employs 43 people and expects to create seven additional jobs because of the project. Sando has also made a conscious effort over the years to keep jobs and fulfillment operations in Napa rather than moving them elsewhere simply to reduce costs. Several employees have been with Rancho Gordo for more than 15 years.
The new location gives the company something it never had before: control over a space it can continue shaping as the business evolves. For Sando, that matters because Rancho Gordo has never been about getting somewhere as quickly as possible.
Even after 25 years, there is still plenty he wants to do.
“The secret is it can be done,” Sando says. “You can play the long game. And I think really a loan helps you to do that.”
From farmers market tables to a building of its own on Main Street, Rancho Gordo now has a permanent home for whatever comes next.