Aug. 12—BEMIDJI — Caribou Coffee is expanding in Bemidji. The company plans to open a Caribou Cabin drive-thru building this winter on the southwest corner of Bemidji Avenue and Paul Bunyan Drive.

The former Dick's Northside service station was demolished last week, and site work for the new coffee shop has begun.

"It's going to be a Caribou Cabin, which is one of our 600-square-foot drive-thru-only locations," said Lindsay Bosley, brand communications manager at Caribou headquarters in Brooklyn Center, Minn. She said walk-up customers also will be able to order from the window, and some outdoor seating will be available.

Caribou currently has three locations in Bemidji, a company-owned shop located in a strip mall west of Walmart and two licensed operations in Lueken's Village Foods' north and south stores. Bosley said that currently there are no plans to close the Caribou location near Walmart.

Caribou Coffee was founded in Edina, Minn., in 1992. It currently has 474 locations in the United States, including 306 in Minnesota. Bosley said the company will open its 30th Caribou Cabin location in the near future, and also its first franchise location in Ohio later this year.

"It's a complicated business model," she said. "We have company-owned stores and are licensed in grocery stores, and now franchising."