Kansas-bred café brand Mokas Coffee & Eatery has signed a nine-unit franchise development agreement with Cornerstone Hospitality, a new venture led by entrepreneurs Brice Turner and Jeff Bennett, marking the brand's most aggressive single-market push to date.
The deal calls for six locations spread across Clay and Jackson Counties on the Missouri side of greater Kansas City, plus three additional units earmarked for Derby, Garden City, and Manhattan in Kansas. Site selection is actively underway, and the group is targeting 2027 openings as it builds out the full nine-unit pipeline.
The Operators Behind the Deal
Turner, an Army veteran who founded Duty First Holdings in 2010, brings nearly two decades of entrepreneurial experience across industries including composites manufacturing, auto services, and commercial properties. Bennett complements that background with professional roots in construction and land development, along with prior success running a multi-unit franchise on the East Coast. Together they formed Cornerstone Hospitality specifically to pursue the Mokas opportunity.
"Mokas is a unique blend of quality drinks and food that you don't see elsewhere in the marketplace, and post-COVID, people are looking for gathering spaces again," said Bennett. Turner echoed that community-first instinct, noting that the brand's diverse demographic and welcoming environment fit Cornerstone's model of spaces suited to everything from family meals to business meetings.
Beyond unit economics, the partners say they intend to give first-time workers a values-driven environment and plan to align with local charities in each market they enter — a positioning play increasingly common among multi-unit operators trying to differentiate in competitive metro areas.
What It Means for the Brand
The Kansas City expansion adds significant weight to a franchise pipeline already in motion. Mokas, founded 20 years ago in Salina, Kansas, currently operates five corporate-owned locations in Salina, Colby, and Wichita, with fifteen more units under development across Wichita, Kansas City, and other Kansas markets. The brand sits within the JRI Hospitality Group, a 145-unit restaurant and hospitality operator active in 18 states and the largest franchisee of Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers.
"Brice and Jeff's backgrounds and combined entrepreneurial experiences make them exactly the kind of franchise partner we look for," said Jason Ingermanson, CEO of JRI Hospitality and President of Mokas Coffee & Eatery. "They understand what it takes to build something meaningful in a community, and that's exactly the spirit Mokas was built on."
For operators tracking the specialty coffee and fast-casual breakfast segment, Mokas competes on a differentiated menu of in-house roasted coffee, smoothies, energy drinks, freshly baked pastries, and made-to-order breakfast and lunch items — a format that blurs the line between café and fast-casual eatery. That positioning has drawn growing franchisee interest as consumers continue seeking neighborhood gathering spots, a trend reshaping restaurant expansion strategy across the Midwest and beyond.
The Cornerstone deal illustrates a broader pattern in beverage-led franchise development: experienced multi-industry operators increasingly viewing specialty coffee concepts as lower-complexity entry points into foodservice, especially in secondary and tertiary markets where large QSR chains have already saturated drive-thru corners.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
