Ostara Coffee Roasters
It’s early afternoon on a cool day in Fort Worth’s Near Southside, and the scent of fresh-roasted coffee lingers in the air, mingling with the hum of conversation. At 208 E. Broadway Avenue, there’s a rhythm to the way people move in and out of the newly opened Ostara Coffee Roasters — a rhythm that’s been playing since March 2022, when founders Natalie Willard and Valerie O’Callaghan started roasting beans and making cold brews in small batches, long before they had a storefront to call home.
They were North Texas’ first women-owned and operated coffee roasters, a title they wore with equal parts pride and caffeine-fueled determination. At first, they hustled through pop-ups and collaborations, slinging coffee from borrowed spaces, pouring their hearts into every cup. But now? Now they’ve built something permanent — something that feels like a deep breath and a fresh start, all wrapped in the scent of espresso and warm oat milk.
But let’s get one thing straight: Ostara isn’t just a coffee shop. It’s a roastery. A cold brew bottling operation. A creative space where coffee meets art, where ideas percolate, and where the espresso machine is always at the ready.
Inside, Fort Worth artist Dizzy Orbit’s crochet installations drape across the walls, bringing the kind of texture that makes you want to reach out and touch. Before that, it was a Goosebumps-inspired three-eyed bunny tee designed by Suzanne Minatra. Up next? A collaboration with Becca Waugh of Sleepy Panther.
Step inside, and it hits you: this place feels like the outside brought in — greenery creeping into every corner, a bright green Cotto tile bar, a glass garage door that swings open when the weather cooperates. It’s designed for lingering, for long conversations, for that first sip of coffee that stops time for just a second.
The name itself stems from the Spring Equinox, marking the actual time of the season Ostara was founded.
"We also joke that we just think it's a cool name," Willard says. "People don't really know what it means. So it was a way for us to name the business something that could really be our own and we could really make it our own.
The menu keeps things simple but intentional. Cold brew lattes replace the usual iced espresso drinks, bringing out smooth, chocolatey notes. Their matcha latte? Best paired with house-made honey cinnamon syrup. And in a move that’s both progressive and practical, oat milk is the default.
“Coffee is a plant,” Willard says. “It just makes sense to pair it with another plant.”
Willard also verified that Ostara is selling its very own breakfast sandwiches, a new concept for this team, who are known for outsourcing cuisine to go along with that essential morning cup of coffee.
For Willard, coffee is personal. It’s memory and ritual, wrapped in steam and served in a warm ceramic cup.
“I grew up waking up to the smell of coffee, having it with my grandma — there’s something about it that just sticks with you,” she says.
That connection is what fuels Ostara’s next chapter. They’re expanding their patio, bringing in more plants, more seating, more reasons to stay awhile. Beyond the shop, they’re growing their reach — you can find their beans and cold brew at Bodega South Main, Roy Pope Grocery, and Cafecito on Magnolia, where they even crafted a special cold brew blend just for the shop.
But really, it all comes back to that first moment — the one where you take a sip and realize, yeah… this is something different. Something worth paying attention to.
As Willard puts it: "We wanted to build something that’s not only a place for us to grow as a business but that also serves as a community hub in the South Main neighborhood."
