She Sold Bannock from a Roadside Stand for Three Years. Now She Runs Canada's First Indigenous Fast-Casual Franchise.
Sharon Bond-Hogg started Kekuli Cafe out of a passion for sharing Indigenous cuisine with anyone who would stop and try it. What began as evenings and weekends on the side of a highway in West Kelowna has grown into a multi-location café franchise — and a blueprint for Indigenous entrepreneurship in Canada.
August 3, 2026 · By Justin Plosz · Kelowna, British Columbia · Business · 6 min read read
Three Years on the Side of the Road
Sharon Bond-Hogg did not open a restaurant. She started with a table, a batch of bannock, and a highway.
For three years she spent every evening, weekend, and summer holiday selling bannock from a roadside stand near West Kelowna, BC. The product was traditional — a bread with deep roots in the culinary history of North America's Indigenous peoples — but the business model was pure determination. No restaurant space, no investors, no franchise agreement. Just consistent presence and a product that was genuinely different from anything else available at the roadside.
The customers who stopped kept coming back. The demand that built during those years gave Bond-Hogg the confidence and the data to take the next step: a permanent location. Kekuli Cafe opened its first bricks-and-mortar café in Westbank, the community in West Kelowna at the heart of Syilx / Okanagan Nation territory, with a full kitchen and an espresso bar built around fair trade, 100% Arabica coffee.
The name Kekuli comes from the Syilx language, referring to a traditional pit house — a structure built into the earth that served as both shelter and gathering place. Bond-Hogg chose the name deliberately. Kekuli Cafe was meant to be that kind of place: grounded, welcoming, and rooted in the land it sits on.
What Bannock Actually Is — and Why It Belongs in a Café
Bannock is often described simply as a traditional bread, but that undersells what it is and what it can be.
Historically prepared by Indigenous peoples across North America long before European contact, bannock developed in many forms across different nations — baked, fried, cooked over an open fire, or steamed. It is a bread built for adaptability, and that adaptability is exactly what Bond-Hogg has leaned into at Kekuli Cafe.
At Kekuli, bannock is the anchor of the menu — but it is served in formats that make it accessible to anyone walking in. Bannock buns. Bannock-based sandwiches. Bannock paired with saskatoon berry preserves. The café pairs these offerings with a full espresso program, using 100% Arabica fair trade coffee, and builds a menu that combines Indigenous flavour traditions with the fast-casual format that modern café customers expect.
The result is a menu that is neither a museum exhibit nor a tourist novelty. It is a genuinely good café that happens to be built around a food tradition that deserves far wider recognition than it has historically received in Canadian mainstream food culture.
From One Location to a Franchise Model
After the Westbank location established itself as a community fixture, the expansion moved quickly by the standards of independent food businesses.
Kekuli Cafe now operates locations in Westbank, Kelowna, Merritt, and Kamloops — a geographic spread across the BC Interior that reflects how strongly the concept resonated beyond its home community. The Merritt location sits on the Coquihalla Highway corridor, one of the busiest overland routes in BC, where Bond-Hogg's signage greets drivers with a line that has become something of a local institution: Don't Panic — There's Bannock.
The franchise model that underpins the expansion was built deliberately. Kekuli Cafe is not simply a chain — it is structured to create pathways for Indigenous entrepreneurs to own and operate their own locations. The brand provides the systems; the franchisees provide the community connection. Bond-Hogg has described the framework as a way of ensuring that the economic benefits of the brand's growth flow into Indigenous communities rather than passing through them.
The Coffee Association of Canada has recognized Bond-Hogg as a leader in the specialty coffee industry. The Business Development Bank of Canada has featured her story as a case study in building a business from a unique product with a bootstrap approach. In 2023, Simon Fraser University highlighted her journey as she completed her MBA — a credential she pursued while building the business, not as a prerequisite for starting it.
Why This Business Matters Beyond the Menu
Canada has a long record of celebrating Indigenous art, culture, and tradition while doing far less to support Indigenous economic participation in mainstream commercial life. Kekuli Cafe is a direct answer to that gap — not through advocacy, but through a functioning business that is profitable, scalable, and entirely built on Indigenous food traditions.
Bond-Hogg has spoken publicly about the importance of demonstrating that Indigenous business can succeed in competitive commercial environments without compromising its cultural foundation. Kekuli Cafe is not a charity project. It is not a government-funded cultural initiative. It is a fast-casual food business that works because the product is genuinely excellent and the operator built it the hard way: three years on the side of a highway, learning what people actually want to eat.
For anyone in the BC Interior who has driven through Merritt and stopped at the Kekuli location, this is already obvious. The line at the counter tells you everything you need to know about whether the concept landed.
Key takeaways
- Kekuli Cafe founder Sharon Bond-Hogg spent three years selling bannock from a roadside stand in West Kelowna before opening her first permanent café location.
- The business is built around bannock — a traditional Indigenous bread — paired with fair trade specialty espresso, creating a fast-casual format accessible to any café customer.
- Kekuli Cafe now operates in Westbank, Kelowna, Merritt, and Kamloops, and is recognized as Canada's first Indigenous fast-casual café franchise.
- The franchise model is structured specifically to create ownership pathways for Indigenous entrepreneurs, keeping economic benefits within Indigenous communities.
- Sharon Bond-Hogg has been recognized by the BDC, the Coffee Association of Canada, and Simon Fraser University as a benchmark example of Indigenous entrepreneurship in Canada.
- The Kekuli name comes from the Syilx language and refers to a traditional pit house — a gathering place — reflecting the founders' intention for the café to serve the same community function.
Frequently asked questions
- Where are Kekuli Cafe locations in BC?
- Kekuli Cafe operates locations in Westbank (West Kelowna), Kelowna, Merritt, and Kamloops, British Columbia. The Merritt location is on the Coquihalla Highway corridor and is particularly well known among travellers moving through the BC Interior.
- Who founded Kekuli Cafe?
- Kekuli Cafe was founded by Sharon Bond-Hogg, an Indigenous entrepreneur from West Kelowna, BC. She started the business by selling bannock from a roadside stand on evenings and weekends for three years before opening the first permanent café location in Westbank.
- What is bannock?
- Bannock is a traditional bread with deep roots in the culinary history of Indigenous peoples across North America. It can be baked, fried, or cooked in various ways and appears in many forms across different nations. At Kekuli Cafe, bannock is served in formats including buns, sandwiches, and pastries, paired with specialty fair trade espresso drinks and locally sourced ingredients.
- Is Kekuli Cafe a franchise?
- Yes. Kekuli Cafe has developed a franchise model designed specifically to give Indigenous entrepreneurs the opportunity to own and operate their own café locations. The model is structured so that economic benefits from the brand's growth flow into Indigenous communities rather than bypassing them.
- Has Kekuli Cafe received any business recognition?
- Yes. The Business Development Bank of Canada has featured Kekuli Cafe founder Sharon Bond-Hogg as a case study in entrepreneurship. The Coffee Association of Canada has recognized her as a leader in specialty coffee. Simon Fraser University highlighted her story when she completed her MBA in 2023. The brand is widely cited as one of Canada's most successful Indigenous food businesses.
- Does Kekuli Cafe have a mobile app?
- Yes. Kekuli Cafe has a mobile app available on both the App Store and Google Play that allows customers to order ahead and earn loyalty rewards.
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