Karla Orta started selling native plants out of the back of her RAV4. Then her parents’ driveway. Then she opened a nursery on White Settlement Road in Fort Worth, and when people kept showing up and lingering, she put a café next to it. Nativo Café y Bodega opened May 16, and the two businesses now sit side by side at 1701 White Settlement Road — native plants on one side, espresso and focaccia on the other.
The room is exactly what you’d expect from someone who built a plant business on personality: thrifted furniture, leafy corners, warm textures, the kind of space that makes you stay longer than you planned. Orta grew up with a guava tree in her grandmother’s backyard in Mexico, and that background shapes everything on the menu. The drinks are made with house-made syrups rooted in Mexican flavors and Texas ingredients. The Nuez de Tejas Latte — maple pecan, topped with pecan cream — is the one people order first. The Chiltepin Honey Latte opens sweet and closes with a native pepper heat that sneaks up on you. The Guava Matcha is the drink Orta says she built specifically around that tree from her grandmother’s yard. The Nativo Shaker — shaken espresso with honey-vanilla orange syrup — is the afternoon call. A Strawberry Fresca rounds out the iced options for anyone who wants something lighter.
The food side is focused and deliberate. Orta makes her focaccia in-house and builds the sandwiches — called sandos — around it starting at 11am, until they sell out. Three versions: birria, a family recipe; caprese with sundried tomato pesto; and prosciutto with pesto and honey. None of them are complicated. All of them are good enough that people show up specifically for them and find the coffee is just as worth their time.
Nativo runs pottery nights, plant workshops, and outdoor markets on a rotating schedule — the events calendar is worth checking before you go, because the neighborhood shows up for them. The nursery next door stocks native Texas plants and is open the same hours, which means you can leave with a focaccia, a latte, and something that belongs in your garden. That combination is specific to this block and to this particular person’s vision for what a business should do for the people around it.
Hours are Monday through Friday 6am to 8pm, Saturday and Sunday 7am to 8pm. Sandwiches start at 11am and run until they sell out, which happens. Phone is not listed publicly — find them on Instagram at @nativo.cafe.bodega for daily updates and event announcements. The address is 1701 White Settlement Road, Fort Worth.
She started in a RAV4. This is where it went.
