First Franchise Unit Opens

Mokas Coffee & Eatery, the 20-year-old Kansas-based café chain known for in-house-roasted coffee, made-to-order breakfast and lunch, and dispensed specialty beverages, opens its first-ever franchise location September 30 in Olathe, Kansas — a 3,100-square-foot unit at 11814 S Fellows St that the brand says will create between 45 and 60 local jobs.

The Olathe café is the debut unit for franchisee Christian Coleman, founder and president of Midwest Restaurant Group, who has already committed to five additional Mokas locations across the Kansas City metro area spanning Johnson, Douglas, and Shawnee counties. That six-unit development agreement makes Coleman the brand's first franchisee, a milestone the company is framing as the opening chapter of a broader Midwest expansion.

The Operator Behind the Deal

Coleman's background sits squarely in hospitality operations: he managed VIP operations and sponsorships at the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament in Indian Wells, California, and later became what the company describes as the youngest professional tournament director in tennis. He also co-founded Sunnyland Kansas Farm, an 80-acre organic farm in Kansas, and developed a 20,000-square-foot industrial hemp drying facility in Newton, Kansas. That cross-sector experience — events hospitality, agriculture, food production — positions him as the kind of multi-unit operator foodservice franchise brands increasingly target when building out regional development pipelines.

"Christian embodies the entrepreneurial, hospitality-driven mindset we look for in franchisees," said Jason Ingermanson, President of Mokas Coffee & Eatery and CEO of JRI Hospitality. "Watching him open the doors on our first-ever franchise location, after celebrating our 20th anniversary, is a full-circle moment for our brand."

Brand Footprint and Growth Pipeline

Mokas currently operates five corporate-owned locations in Salina, Colby, and Wichita, with three more corporate units under development in Wichita and Hays. With the Olathe franchise open and Coleman's remaining five units in the queue, the chain's total development pipeline now stands at roughly 15 locations across Kansas and Kansas City-area markets.

Parent company JRI Hospitality — a 145-unit restaurant and hospitality group operating across 18 states and the largest Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers franchisee with more than 130 locations — is backing the Mokas franchise buildout. For a café concept looking to scale beyond its corporate base, aligning with a multi-brand operator of that size gives Mokas access to back-of-house infrastructure and multi-unit development expertise that most emerging specialty coffee franchises lack at this stage.

For convenience and specialty-beverage operators watching the dispensed-beverage and café-adjacent competitive landscape, Mokas' push into the Kansas City metro is worth tracking. The brand's menu — in-house-roasted coffee, cold brew, energy drinks, smoothies, breakfast wraps, sandwiches, soups, and fresh-baked pastries — maps closely to the grab-and-go foodservice programs that c-store chains have been expanding aggressively. The grand opening event includes a chamber ribbon cutting, a $100 social media giveaway, and a prize wheel for branded merchandise and gift cards. During its first month of operation, Mokas will donate 10% of all 16 oz specialty drink sales to KidsTLC, a local nonprofit.

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.