RidgeCraft is the workshop we built around a cart Sam made for a friend's theatrical production in 2020. The friend's friend asked for one. Then her friend. Three hundred builds later, we are still here, still in Yorba Linda, still answering the phone.
Six years, four people, three hundred builds. None of it planned. Most of it happened because someone asked Sam if they could buy the cart, and Sam said yes.
Sam built a mobile bar for a friend's theatrical production. It was supposed to be a one-time thing. The bar sat at the back of the venue for three nights, and three different people asked the friend where she got it.
One of them ran a wedding-planning business in Long Beach and wanted one for her bartender. Sam built her one in his garage that weekend. She paid him. He bought more wood. The garage filled up.
Sam was still working a day job. Gina was running spreadsheets and answering emails in the evenings. We built sixty-three carts in 2021, all out of a one-car garage in Anaheim. Most of them went to event bartenders. A few coffee carts started showing up in the order list.
By December, we knew we either needed a real shop or we needed to stop. Gina ran the math. We took out a small business loan and signed the lease on Suite J.
The Yorba Linda shop opened in January 2023. Christian came on three months later — Sam needed someone who could run the production floor while he focused on builds and Gina handled everything that was not wood. We hit a hundred carts that year. Several of them ended up on Instagram, which started feeding the next year's pipeline.
By the middle of 2024, Sam was spending more time on the phone than at the bench. That is the wrong way around. We brought on Amanda to handle inbound, build estimates, and run the project pipeline. She has been running point on every customer interaction since. The 5 unbreakable rules — Agreement before deposit, deposit before queue, change orders in writing — those are hers.
This year we retired Semi-Custom, our worst-margin tier, and reorganized the catalog into three pre-designed tiers: DIY, Signature, Custom Elite. Smaller surface, sharper offer, faster response time. The shop is the same. The standard is the same. The difference is that we now know what we are willing to make and what we are not.
Three hundred builds, four people, one bench in Yorba Linda. That is the company.
When you call us, you talk to one of these four. The number on the contact page is the number that rings the desk.
Builds it. Signs every build tag. Runs the discovery call on every Custom Elite. The reason the proportion is right.
Runs it. Books, banking, vendor management, payroll, and the systems that keep the shop floor honest.
Calls you back. Builds your estimate. Owns the pipeline from first contact to deposit. The reason your inquiry doesn't sit in a queue.
Keeps the shop moving. Runs the floor while Sam and the crew build. The reason builds ship on schedule.
Three thousand square feet on La Palma Avenue in Yorba Linda. One CNC, two assembly tables, a paint room, a finish room, and a loading dock that opens onto the alley. You are welcome to stop by — call ahead so somebody can show you around.
Most company values pages list four words and stop. Here is what each of these actually means in our shop, on a Tuesday.
Amanda answers her phone. Sam returns a text within 24 hours. If you bought from us in 2021, your build tag still works — you can call us about a wheel five years later, and we will help.
No corner gets cut for time. We will tell you the lead time is six weeks and not five, because five is the version where something gets rushed and we hate ourselves for it.
Sam tries one new thing per build. Sometimes it works (the dowel-and-glue frame). Sometimes it does not (a cart with built-in speakers — long story).
A Custom Elite is co-designed. You bring the constraint. Sam brings the build. We do not pretend to know your business better than you do.
"Tell us what you are working on. We will pick up."