Food: Bagel chain expanding in metro area.

Coffee & Bagels, an expanding retail chain featuring Caribou coffee and Einstein Bros. bagels, is set to open Friday in Shorewood.

The location at 4301 N. Oakland Ave., which previously operated as an Einstein Bros. bagel shop, will be giving away free coffee and bagels with spreads for a year to the first 50 people in line, the company said. The Coffee & Bagels store opens at 7 a.m. Friday.

Another Coffee & Bagels shop is set to open Dec. 9 at 17000 W. Blue Mound Road in Brookfield, where Einstein has operated a restaurant for years and a Starbuck’s coffee shop formerly was located. Two Coffee & Bagels shops are planned for Madison, one set to open Dec. 20.

Caribou coffee shops largely disappeared from Wisconsin in 2013, with some locations reopening as Peet’s Coffee & Tea stores, which also later closed.

But after the two chains came under the same ownership, the opportunity for combined Coffee & Bagels shops was created. Currently, there are more than 30 Coffee & Bagels stores.

Caribou was purchased in 2013 by Joh. A. Benckiser Group, a European investment firm. Benckiser also held a majority stake in Peet’s.

In 2014, Einstein Noah Restaurant Group Inc. was sold to JAB Holding Co., putting ownership of the coffee and bagels chains under the same roof.