Drive south on 25th East past Hitt Road on a weekday afternoon and you will pass a parking lot that barely existed two years ago, a drive-through window still shiny with new paint, and a stretch of pavement that Eastern Idaho's commercial brokers have started calling something specific: Retail Row.
Most people who live near it assume the corridor works the way retail growth usually works around here, that Idaho Falls gets the new chain first and Ammon gets the overflow a year or two later. The opposite just happened. Café Zupas' first location on the eastern side of the state opened in Ammon, rather than downtown or along Yellowstone Highway, on a corner most residents still know by what used to sit there.
A corridor that already earned a nickname
The stretch of South 25th East running past Hitt Road has been building toward this for a while. Commercial listings for the area now describe it as Idaho Falls' "Retail Row," a strip anchored by Bass Pro Shops, the store still known to a lot of locals by its old name, Cabela's, along with Hobby Lobby. The same listing points out something that matters more than the store names: the corridor sits within reach of two hospitals, the College of Eastern Idaho, and a regional mall, which means daytime traffic here does not depend on whether school is in session or whether it is a weekend.
The corridor combines steady daytime activity with room to build.
What actually opened this year
The newest bet is Foothills Square, a retail center built by Ball Ventures with partner Woodbury Corporation, sitting just south of Culver's and that same Bass Pro Shops building on 25th East. Its first tenant, Café Zupas, held its grand opening on January 15, 2026. According to East Idaho News, it was the first Café Zupas location anywhere on the eastern side of Idaho, and the company has announced plans for two more in the region.
The same East Idaho News report quoted Tahri Molifua, Ball Ventures' president of real estate, on the project:
"As the first Café Zupas on this side of the state, this opening highlights our vision for Foothills Square as a hub for exciting, diverse and high-quality retail experiences."
The quote records Ball Ventures' stated vision for Foothills Square. The corridor's nearby institutions and established retailers provide additional context for the location.
What the Café Zupas opening says about the corridor
Here is the part that surprises people who have lived in Ammon for years and still think of it as the quieter, residential side of the metro. Café Zupas' first eastern Idaho location is on Ammon's Hitt Road and 25th East corridor.
A few features distinguish the corridor:
- Land is available in usable chunks. Foothills Square was built as a planned center with pad sites ready for ground lease.
- Nearby institutions and destinations. Two hospitals and the College of Eastern Idaho are within reach of the corridor.
- Established retail is already here. Bass Pro Shops and Hobby Lobby were on this stretch of 25th East before Foothills Square broke ground.
Those details are easy to miss on a quick drive, but they describe the setting around Café Zupas' first eastern Idaho location.
What it means on an ordinary Wednesday
If you already live along this stretch, the practical version of all this is simple. The Albertsons at 1901 South 25th East is still the neighborhood grocery run it has always been. Culver's and Bass Pro Shops are still the landmarks people use for directions. What changed is what sits between them and what that says about how the corridor is read from the outside.
The next time a friend visiting from out of town asks where to eat near the Bass Pro Shops end of Ammon, you now have an answer that did not exist a year ago, and a small piece of local knowledge to go with it: Café Zupas is on this stretch of 25th East, home to its first eastern Idaho location. It is a useful detail to have when making a dinner recommendation.
If you are watching Ammon for reasons that go beyond dinner plans, whether that is a home you are thinking about listing or a sense of where the neighborhood is heading next, Abigail Martin Real Estate tracks these shifts as closely as the market data itself. A free home valuation is one way to start that conversation, but so is a call about what a corner like this one means for a street a few blocks over.
