July 15, 2026, 4:57 a.m. ET
Covelli Enterprises, a franchisee of Panera Bread, O’Charley’s and Caribou Coffee, announced plans to open Caribou Coffee locations in the Erie region in 2023.
They aren’t coming anytime soon.
“We still have not determined whether we will be building any Caribou restaurants,” said Allen L. Ryan, director of corporate affairs for Covelli. He said that July 9, when contacted about the closing of O’Charley’s on Interchange Road.
Erie native Sam Covelli signed a deal three years ago that would have added 100 locations in Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania, including Erie, but few of those have come to fruition. The company, which owns the Erie Panera Bread franchises, has opened two Caribou locations in Ohio, one at the Glacier Hills plaza on the Ohio Turnpike and another in North Canton. Most recent reports from Covelli in 2025 did not list Erie as a current project, and no site in the Erie area had ever been established.
“We are still in the early stages of looking at real estate in Erie,” Covelli said in 2023. “Once we open our first location, we hope to see great success and continue to expand rapidly.”
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Contact Jennie Geisler at jgeisler@timesnews.com. Find her weekly newsletter at https://profile.goerie.com/newsletters/erielicious/.