New business near Idaho-Utah border devoted to ‘building awesome memories’

By Rett Nelson

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    GARDEN CITY, Utah (eastidahonews.com) — A new family-owned business across the Idaho-Utah border is devoted to “building awesome memories” and making children happy.

The Outpost — a LEGO store — opened July 1 in a 200-square-foot shack at 220 West 10 South in Garden City, Utah. The business is behind the Moose Buns Coffee Shop next to Bear Lake Renegade Raceway Go-Karts in the mini-golf course area.

“It’s been quite the ride to get everything open, but we’re really excited about it,” Kailin Montalvo, one of the business’s board members tells EastIdahoNews.com. “We were planning on doing it at the same time as the mini golf course that’s right here but that’s not quite open yet.”

While the business sells LEGO products, it is not an official LEGO store. It has a partnership with LEGO to sell a variety of LEGO products. Its main focus is providing previously built LEGO sets and individual mini figures.

“Right now, our thing is the $5 ball fig — a mini figure with an accessory of some sort. If you pay in cash, we’ll cover the sales tax,” says Montalvo. “We’re also working on setting up a couple different experiences. We’ve got remote-controlled race cars that are coming and we’ve got the Mario LEGO sets with a little obstacle course … that kids can use, play with and have fun with.”

Tables are set up outside the shop so people can play with the LEGOs. Customers can also enjoy some flavored soda while they play.

Located on the Utah side of Bear Lake, Garden City is a place where many people vacation every summer, including Montalvo and her family. Her parents, James and Kristen Messer, host family reunions in Garden City every summer and even own property there. They thought opening a LEGO store in a place where others love to vacation was a good idea and customers seem to agree.

Montalvo says the response to the business over the last month has been “fantastic.”

“People are so thrilled to see that we’re there,” Montalvo says. “He (my dad) gets a lot of people who come up to him and are like, ‘Oh my gosh! You’re the lego man! You’re the lego man!’ It’s a lot of fun. We’re really excited to be part of the community, to bring that into the community and it’s such a joy to give that to people.”

The Outpost is part of BamCal Inc., which also owns 40-50 Bricks & Mini Figs stores throughout the U.S. and Canada. Bricks & Mini Figs is an aftermarket LEGO empire that buys, sells and trades LEGO sets.

Montalvo says her dad used to teach public school in Manteca, California. He wasn’t happy with changes that were happening in the public school so he decided to devote the rest of his life to making kids happy.

“The easiest way to do that, we’ve found, is with LEGOs,” she says. “We love that there’s the ability to not only have fun, but to learn while having fun through LEGOs.”

The Messers took over Bricks & Mini Figs in Manteca, California and Concord, California from the previous owners in 2018. The franchise has continued to grow since then.

The Outpost is a seasonal shop for now, which will remain open through the end of August and possibly into September. It will return next summer beginning Memorial Day weekend.

“It was a very fast opening this summer. We had planned on doing it in a different type of venue and that fell through,” says Montalvo. “We worked really closely with Moose Buns to get it up and going so that we could still do it and the result of that is we’re here and we’re having fun.”

Nothing is definite yet, but Montalvo says it’s possible there will be a store closer to eastern Idaho soon.

“Part of what we’re learning in this process is that we have a lot of ambitions and we really need to strengthen our process so we can open well in other places. We’re definitely exploring opening at least one more place up there (close to Bear Lake), whether that be in eastern Idaho or Logan, if not, multiple places, that would be a little bit bigger. It’ll be next spring at the earliest,” she says.

Montalvo is inviting you to stop by the Garden City store because new things are being added all the time. She says they’re happy to have a footprint in the area and to be able to “build awesome memories with everyone” who visits.

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