When Shawn Thomson moved to Cape Breton during the pandemic, he wasn’t chasing a food-truck dream. He was trying to be closer to family.

His father, who was from Cape Breton, had moved back years earlier, and as he got older, Shawn and his family decided it was time to be nearby. “Thank God we did it when we did,” Shawn says. His father passed away in September 2025, but the move gave them meaningful time together.

It also gave Shawn the chance to revive an idea that had been simmering in his mind for nearly 15 years.

Before Cape Breton, Shawn worked in transportation in Ontario, first as a secure courier, then as a truck driver, and later in dispatching after an accident made trucking difficult. When he arrived in Cape Breton in 2021 and surveyed the employment scene, he decided to pull out an old business plan instead.

“I dusted off this business plan that I wrote a decade and a half ago,” he recalls.

After seeing an ad for CBDC Coastal Business online, he dropped in to learn more. “That’s really where my journey started.”

By February 2022, Seaside Sugar’s Donuts and Dogs was officially launched. With CBDC’s support, Shawn was able to purchase a food trailer and get the wheels in motion – literally.

Doing Something Different

From the beginning, Shawn knew he wanted – and needed – Seaside Sugar’s to stand apart. He started in the most natural place you’d expect.

“Essentially, I started out with things that I like to eat,” he says with a chuckle. But he also noticed a gap in the market; Cape Breton had plenty of food trucks serving burgers and fries, but not many offering hot mini-donuts. “Nobody did the mini donuts here,” he says.

Today, Seaside Sugar’s is well known for hot fresh mini-donuts, delicious jumbo dogs, corn dogs, chili, tater tots, and cold drinks, with customer favourites that include cinnamon sugar donuts, blueberry toppings, and cheese sauce. The business quickly caught the attention of local customers, earning Platinum in the Donuts category from CommunityVotes Cape Breton in 2023.

Despite the company’s growth, Shawn had no formal food background when he began. “I essentially had no experience with it,” he says. “I just knew what I liked and what I wanted to do.”

He learned through videos, testing, plenty of trial and error, and lots of customer feedback. “One of the great things about Cape Breton is people will always tell you what they think,” he says with a smile. “That’s really helpful when you’re running a business and need feedback.”

The business’ popular strawberry and blueberry toppings are homemade, and whenever possible, he uses locally sourced fruit. The chili and cheese sauce are also made from scratch.

“I think people like that,” Shawn says. “We’re not just going and grabbing a bag of something and heating it up.”

Even the hot dogs get a signature treatment: butterflied, cooked on a flat griddle, placed on a fresh-baked bun, and specially seasoned in a way Shawn wisely keeps under wraps. “I can’t give you the secret sauce,” he laughs.

A Family Affair on the Move

For its first four seasons, Seaside Sugar’s was stationary in Sydney, including time near the port, where Shawn met cruise ship crews and visitors from around the world. This year, after a challenging downtown season in 2025 affected by parking and foot traffic, he decided to take the trailer on the road.

Sydney remains home base, but Seaside Sugar’s now travels across CBRM and to private events farther afield. Some stops are booked by market organizers or graduation parties. Others are regular pop-ups at rented spaces, including churches, municipal properties, and private lots.

The driving suits Shawn. And after years in transportation, he still diligently checks the trailer, tow vehicle, tires, generator, and supplies before moving. “Those are valuable habits leftover from being a truck driver,” he says.

The business is also close to home. His son Noah works with him on the truck, and Shawn describes it simply: “It’s a family affair.”

Although the truck usually opens for business at noon, a typical day starts long before that. Even on days off, Shawn is restocking, cleaning, and preparing. Behind the friendly service is a long list of unseen tasks. “Customers just see this smiling guy handing them a hot dog,” he says. “They don’t know the four hours before that where I’m pulling out my hair.”

A Community That Shows Up

Running the truck has helped Shawn feel connected in a place he did not grow up in. Raised near Toronto and later based in Ottawa, he has found Cape Breton to be different.

“Through the last few years, it’s been very hard,” he says. “But I found that the community always shows up.”

That became especially clear in April 2024, when Shawn’s son was diagnosed with stage-three cancer. The family had to travel to the IWK Health Centre in Halifax for care, while Shawn worked to keep the business going.

“I didn’t know what we were gonna do,” he says.

Then the community rallied. One of his son’s coaches started a GoFundMe. Donations came from across Nova Scotia. A local business owner gave the family $1,000 on grading day after hearing their story.

“I was overwhelmed,” Shawn says.

His son is now in full remission, and Shawn has not forgotten the support. Seaside Sugar’s has since participated in Teal to Heal, supported the Haley Street Society, and entered floats in several local parades.

“We hope we mean as much to the community as they’ve meant to us,” he says.

Looking Down the Road

Like many entrepreneurs, Shawn has learned that running a business is harder than it looks.

“When you first have this idea, sometimes you think, I’m going to make a ton of money and it’s going to solve all my problems,” he says. “That’s not how it works.”

The biggest challenge was learning how to purchase, plan, operate, and manage the business. Shawn says CBDC helped with financing, training, and practical guidance through the hard early years, especially through the Self Employment Benefits program.

“CBDC was a huge help,” he recalls. “I can just ask them a question. Like, how do I do this? I don’t know how to do this.”

With CBDC’s support, Shawn purchased a second trailer at the end of last year. His plan is to use one unit for more stationary service and the other as the main travelling trailer. Eventually, he would like to take Seaside Sugar’s beyond Cape Breton to places like Antigonish, Truro, and Halifax.

For now, though, Shawn is still learning the road: where to park, how much to pack, and how to keep everything moving.

“It feels like every time we travel somewhere, it’s like trying to load an army,” he laughs.

Still, Seaside Sugar’s Donuts and Dogs has already become more than an old idea brought back to life. It is a family business, a community connection point, and a small reminder that sometimes finding home starts with the courage to get moving.

Thank you to the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), who collaborate with us to support small businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs. Together, we will continue to build a stronger Atlantic Canadian economy, fostering job growth and strengthening our rural communities.