Local

Frediberto's collapse in the Valley: it boasted four Ohio locations in two years — only Cleveland survives

It arrived in the Valley as the great promise of Arizona-style Mexican food: four locations opened in about two years, ribbon cuttings, ads and franchise plans. Today, of that flash empire only one is left standing in all of Ohio — and it is not in the Valley: Cleveland. The Austintown location closed permanently; Niles and Girard, according to community reports and neighbors in the area, closed on Friday, October 30.

Frediberto's Mexican Food, an Arizona-style Mexican drive-thru chain — the Arizona burrito, the Super Fries, the street tacos and the horchata — landed in Northeast Ohio with its location No. 1 in Niles (5191 Youngstown Warren Rd). Then came Austintown (4837 Mahoning Ave), No. 3 in Cleveland (7309 Broadway Ave) and No. 4 in Girard (420 S State St). The Austintown opening even had a ribbon cutting, covered by The Business Journal Daily. The brand is new, founded this decade — its trademark registration was filed in 2021 by Alfredo Davila of Mesa, Arizona — but it presented itself as the Valley's next big chain.

Location No. 1, in Niles: one of its windows is already boarded up with an OSB panel. Photo: Google Maps

The first to fall was Austintown. Frediberto's own official page confirmed in Facebook comments that the location had closed permanently; as early as July 2026, customers were lamenting the closure on that same page and asking for it to reopen. Yelp lists that location as "Permanently Closed."

And in Austintown, the story did not end when the doors shut. Word in the local restaurant scene — the version circulating among local restaurant owners, which this outlet has not been able to confirm with documents — is that the property owner sought to sue the brand for breach of contract, and that the restaurant even reopened for about a month, already under different people who had been promised sales that never materialized. When they saw that the promised numbers did not exist, they closed again. Today the building is offered for lease, with the Frediberto's sign still up.

The final blow came a week ago. According to community reports and neighbors in the area, the Niles and Girard locations closed on Friday, October 30. Girard, in fact, never even got an announcement of its own: local reports say that location never displayed the Frediberto's sign, and that from the chicken business that previously occupied the building, only the old sign was removed. The brand has published no announcement about those two closures: online directories still show them as open, but those same directories took months to reflect the Austintown closure. Another sign points in the same direction: the Niles location's listing on DoorDash shows as "temporarily closed." And there is one sign that needs no directories: the Niles location already has its windows boarded up with OSB panels, the unmistakable image of a final closure.

The contrast did not go unnoticed in the Valley. In July 2026, while customers were commenting on its page about the Austintown closure and asking for it to reopen, the brand was posting "franchise opportunities" ads on that same Facebook page, inviting more investors to open locations under the same name. The expansion was still being sold; the locations were not.

The result is plain to see: in about two years, three of the four locations the chain opened in Ohio have shut their doors, and the only one still standing is not in the Valley.

What is left for customers? In the Youngstown area there is no longer any Frediberto's: anyone craving its Arizona burrito will have to drive to Cleveland, where location No. 3, at 7309 Broadway Ave, is still operating, according to the brand's directory and DoorDash, verified on November 6. It is, today, the last Frediberto's in Ohio.

Sources: Frediberto's Mexican Food official Facebook page (confirmation of the Austintown closure in comments and franchise opportunities post, July 2026); The Business Journal Daily (Austintown opening); Yelp (Austintown, "Permanently Closed"); fredibertos.com location directory and DoorDash (Cleveland, checked November 6, 2026); community reports and neighbors in Niles, Girard and Austintown. English version of Press Pass USA's sister outlet Informadores USA's original reporting, published November 6, 2026.

Sponsored

MR CAT ADVERTISINGDOES YOUR BUSINESS NEED MORE CUSTOMERS?

VISIT SITE →