Kansas-based Mokas Coffee & Eatery has signed a nine-unit franchise development agreement with Cornerstone Hospitality, a newly formed group led by veteran entrepreneurs Brice Turner and Jeff Bennett, adding meaningful density to the brand's push beyond its Salina, Kan., home turf.
The deal allocates six units to Clay and Jackson Counties on the Missouri side of the greater Kansas City market, with the remaining three directed to Kansas markets in Derby, Garden City, and Manhattan. Site selection is active across all three Kansas locations, and the group is targeting a 2027 opening cadence as it builds out the full pipeline.
The Franchisee Profile
Turner, an Army veteran, founded Duty First Holdings in 2010 and has since assembled a portfolio spanning composites manufacturing, nondestructive inspection, automotive services, and commercial real estate. Bennett brings construction and land development experience alongside prior success operating a multi-unit franchise on the East Coast. Both cite the brand's made-to-order food program — wraps, sandwiches, soups, salads, and freshly baked pastries alongside in-house roasted coffee, smoothies, and energy drinks — as a differentiator from commodity café concepts.
"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 angle, noting the brand's appeal across a broad demographic and its fit for everything from casual social visits to business meetings.
Brand Scale and Parent Network
Mokas currently operates five corporate locations in Salina, Colby, and Wichita, with 15 additional units already under development in Wichita, Kansas City, and other Kansas markets. The Cornerstone deal layers nine more commitments on top of that pipeline. Parent company JRI Hospitality — a 145-plus-unit group operating across 18 states and best known as the largest Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers franchisee with more than 130 locations — provides Mokas with operational infrastructure and franchisee development resources that most emerging café brands lack at this stage.
Jason Ingermanson, CEO of JRI Hospitality and President of Mokas Coffee & Eatery, called Turner and Bennett the profile of partner the brand actively recruits: operators who understand community-building alongside unit economics. The comment reflects a broader positioning strategy for Mokas as it competes with regional coffee-and-food hybrids for franchisee attention in the central U.S.
Why This Deal Matters for the Channel
For convenience and foodservice operators tracking the café-eatery segment, the Mokas model is worth watching. Its drive-thru format, in-house roastery supply chain, and all-daypart menu — coffee and pastries bleeding into breakfast burritos and lunch sandwiches — mirrors the foodservice-forward positioning that chains like Casey's have pursued through expanded made-to-order programs. The brand's emphasis on dispensed beverages and freshly prepared food aligns with where convenience-adjacent foodservice investment is flowing, as operators in the QSR and fast-casual café space compete for the same morning and midday traffic occasions that forecourt retailers increasingly covet.
Cornerstone Hospitality says it also plans to embed each location in its local community through charitable partnerships and a workplace culture emphasizing integrity and accountability — a soft-benefit pitch that has become standard in franchise recruitment but carries more weight when franchisees have roots in the markets they're entering, as Turner and Bennett do in the Kansas City corridor.
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.
