Born and Raised in Sonoma - Victor Hodgson
Victor’s Sonoma Journey — Born and Raised in Sonoma
This is the first of three stories about Victor’s relationship with Sonoma Valley.
🟩 Born and Raised in Sonoma — Chapter 1 (You are reading this story.)
🟥 I Always Wanted to Come Back — Chapter 2
Click the story title above to continue Victor’s journey as he leaves Sonoma for college and graduate school, then returns to help carry on his family’s coffee business.
🟦 Making the Family Business My Own — Chapter 3
After taking responsibility for his father’s coffee shop, Victor moves it to a family property, gives it a new name, and brings his Swedish heritage into the business.
-
Victor Hodgson was born at Sonoma Valley Hospital in 1991. He grew up in his mother’s preschool, his father’s coffee shop, and the quiet Sonoma he knew as a child. After graduating from Sonoma Valley High School, he left to continue his education—but he never thought of leaving as permanent.
-
My parents moved to Sonoma in the early 1980s. My mother started a preschool called the Little School in our living room on Napa Road. It later moved to Broadway and eventually to 991 Broadway after my parents bought the property.
My brother was born in 1990, and I was born at Sonoma Valley Hospital in 1991. We both attended my mother’s preschool, as did just about everybody in my family.
Some of my earliest memories are of Barking Dog Roasters, the coffee shop my father opened in Boyes Hot Springs in 1995. That was essentially where I grew up. My father had a day job in San Francisco, and on weekends he worked at the café. I would spend those weekends there with him.
I attended Sonoma Valley Charter School in Agua Caliente from kindergarten through eighth grade. I started at Sonoma Valley High School in 2005 and graduated in 2009.
The Sonoma I remember from childhood was calm and quiet. There wasn’t a lot going on, so we often went somewhere else when we wanted to do something. If we wanted to bowl, we went to Petaluma or Napa. If we wanted to shop, we went to Santa Rosa.
When I was little, getting together usually meant meeting other families at one of the parks. By high school, we spent more time around the Plaza. People also drove out of town to meet friends or go to the mall.
Sonoma was a small community. Many of the people I grew up with had parents who worked in the wine industry or hospitality. My family was unusual because we weren’t directly connected to the wine business.
After high school, I attended Santa Rosa Junior College while I figured out what I wanted to do. At some point, I decided that coffee was going to be my way forward, just as it had been for my father.
I had wanted to attend UC Davis since visiting the campus when I was around eighth grade. I eventually transferred there and earned my bachelor’s degree in sociology. Davis didn’t offer an undergraduate business degree, so sociology became my path.
After Davis, I went to Lund University in Sweden and earned a master’s degree in entrepreneurship.
My mother is from Stockholm, and all my extended family lives in Sweden. I had spent many summers there while growing up, so studying there strengthened a connection that had always been part of my life.
Lund’s system worked well for me. Instead of taking several classes at once, I generally focused on one class for an entire month. It allowed me to concentrate on one subject at a time.
Even though I left Sonoma to go to college and graduate school, I never really imagined that I would stay away forever.
-
Growing up within his parents’ businesses made work, family and community feel inseparable to Victor.
Sonoma’s quietness sometimes made him want to look elsewhere, but it also gave him a strong sense of home.
Leaving for college and graduate school helped Victor better understand what Sonoma meant to him.
His education did more than prepare him for a career—it prepared him to return and contribute to something his family had already built.
Victor’s experience shows how a hometown can remain part of someone’s identity while that person discovers who they are elsewhere.
-
This story was created from an interview with Victor Hodgson conducted by Don Lundgren. Victor’s words have been edited for length and clarity while preserving his voice, experiences and meaning.
