National franchise opening first restaurant in eastern Idaho
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Do you want to know what’s happening in the eastern Idaho business scene? We’ve got you covered. Here is a rundown of this week’s business news across the valley.
BIZ BUZZ
REXBURG
Smoothie and sandwich shop opening in Rexburg
REXBURG — A popular franchise that began in Florida is opening its first eastern Idaho location later this month.
Tropical Smoothie Cafe will open May 22 at 113 South 2nd West in Rexburg next to Jimmy John’s. The menu includes a variety of smoothies, flatbreads, wraps, quesadillas, sandwiches, salads and other items.
Owner and CEO Kelly Plummer tells EastIdahoNews.com she and her husband, Nepal, first heard about the franchise from their son, Alex, who frequently ate at the restaurant while serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Missouri.
“He came home and raved about it,” Plummer says. “After he got home, we went there to see what all the hype was about and we fell in love with it, too.”
Alex will be the restaurant’s general manager.
Kelly, 48, is the fourth-generation owner of a California-based 4-H supply business. Owning a franchise has been a lifelong dream for the couple. They moved to Rexburg in 2016 because Alex wanted to attend Brigham Young University-Idaho.
With no ties to the area, they “took a leap of faith” to start a new life. Nepal now works in the IT department at BYU-Idaho.
With no prior restaurant experience, the couple began looking into opening Tropical Smoothie several years ago.
“Any time there’s a restaurant (my husband) likes that we don’t have in our area, he looks into it. It’s never really gone anywhere before, but this one was different. It was almost like this was the one we were waiting for, even though we might not have known it at the time,” says Kelly.
Tropical Smoothie opened in the Boise area several years before, and the owner initially had a license for the whole state. About 18 months later, he decided to focus on the Boise area and that opened the door for the Plummers to move forward with a Rexburg store.
Tropical Smoothie originally opened in Destin, Florida in 1997, according to the company’s website. It opened its first franchise location the following year and became Tropical Smoothie Cafe in 1999 when it added food options to its menu. The franchise started expanding across the U.S. several years ago.
The Rexburg store will be the franchise’s sixth Idaho location. There are numerous locations in Utah as well, including several in Logan.
The official grand opening in Rexburg will take place June 1-3. Once it’s up and running and the business is established, the Plummers are planning to eventually open another location in Idaho Falls.
Kelly is excited to introduce Tropical Smoothie Cafe to the community.
“We’re really excited to bring something to our area that a lot of people love,” she says. “It’s a great environment … and we love the idea of people being able to come in, have a smoothie, sit with their friends and enjoy their time.”
BIZ BITS
New RV park opening in Idaho Falls
IDAHO FALLS – Idaho Falls’ newest luxury RV park is excited to announce its grand opening event, which will be held on May 19.
RELATED | Construction on new RV park in Idaho Falls getting underway soon
The 10-acre gated RV Park is at 3000 Yellowstone Avenue on the site formerly occupied by Sky-Vu Drive-in. The business includes 59 RV spaces with full hookups, like water, electricity, high-speed wi-fi and sewer connections. Other amenities include two pickleball courts and a lodge.
The grand opening is by invitation only and will be catered by Hellfire BBQ.
EastIdahoNews.com will post a more in-depth story soon.
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