¡Hola! I'm Tatiana.

I was born in Mexico and moved to Santa Monica by the end of middle school. I earned my degree in interior design and spent over twenty years in corporate life, most of it in high-level executive and personal assistant roles.

Noir & Nopal started because my kids were having a hard time finding work, while their friends seemed to land jobs without much trouble. I realized I didn't have to wait around for someone to give them a chance. I could build something myself and hire them into it.

Life has moved the way it does since then. One of my sons still helps out with us when he's off his main job, and the other has moved out of state and built his own path. The business outgrew the reason it started, and I kept going, because somewhere along the way I fell in love with it myself, the early mornings, the moment guests turn a corner and see the cart, watching someone take a photo of a fruit cup before they even eat it.

The name is a love letter to my kids. Noir, French for black, honors their African American heritage. Nopal, Spanish for cactus, comes off the Mexican flag and stands for resilience, roots, and home. My children are African American, Mexican, and Hawaiian Islander, and that mix shows up in everything we make.

Noir & Nopal is still family-run in the ways that matter. We started with charcuterie and grew into dessert carts as we found our footing, and today we serve private celebrations, corporate events, brand activations, and community gatherings across Los Angeles, with Orange County available by request. We've grown carefully, the same way we do everything else, with intention instead of excess.