Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I noticed last weekend that the Shell convenience store in Five Points is closed. According to StreetView, it was open as recently as September of 2025, so I'm guessing it probably closed at the end of October. It hasn't been long anyway.

Never pay full price!

Put this one down to the changing craft beer landscape and South Carolina's new bar regulations. As I understand it, the saturation of the craft niche made operating a retail outlet iffy in the first place, while the difficulty of putting a kitchen in this building made transforming into a full restaurant problematic as well. Of at least that's my takeaway from the numerous articles about the closing.

I was not really aware of this place, despite it having been open for eight years, and admit I probably would not have visited knowing it was not a full restaurant.

Columbia Craft Brewing continues to operate as a brewery, and we will have to see what's next for this space.

You can read about in in The Post & Courier here & here, in The State, or on WIS or WLTX.

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)

Commenter Payne mentions that this restaurant in Mills Corner just to the left of the old Pig/IGA has closed.

Other commenters in Have Your Say mention that there are still a number of Chen's restaurants in the area, though it is not clear if they are connected. For what it's worth, I believe the Egg Roll Station on Crowson is officially a Chen's.

(Hat tip to commenter Payne)

Commenter Dustin reminded me this morning that I had not done a South Carolina State Fair post this year. I certainly meant to, as I enjoy the Fair Food, neon, taking a video on the chair-lift, the art and just the experience in general. Unfortunately this year, my primary car was out of service, and I thought it would be a bad idea to put a 45 year old car with no door locks in the fair parking lot. Hopefully next year!

In the meantime, for those of you who *did* go, you can use this post to leave your comments.

I was never particularly interested in going to TakoSushi, as the menu didn't sound up my alley, but there are a number of them about, so apparently it works for them. Although in the event, not in Forest Acres, I guess. The State has the closing story here, and say that the place was open for a little more than a year, after replacing Baskin Robbins, which closed in 2022.

The storefront is already in train to be a Jimador Real, which I assume is a smaller version of an El Jimador, though I don't really know.

(Hat tip to commenter Larry)

Orvis was founded in 1856, and impinged very infrequently on my attention over the last 170 years. I had the vague idea it was some sort of L. L. Bean thing, (apparently there was more fishing involved than I expected) and totally missed that fact that a store had opened in Cross Hill Market, taking the place of PlantHouse which closed in March 2024.

Here are State stories on the store announcement, and the store opening. There doesn't yet seem to be on on the closing. The chain announced the grand opening on their Facebook just shy of a year ago.

The closing doesn't really have anything to do with Columbia as a market. The chain is in big trouble and is closing about half their stores (for now).

The "November" closing date is just a guess, given that we are more than half-way through October and the closing sale has already started.

(Hat tip to commenter Larry)

Daniel's Fine Furniture has moved from their location across from the Airport to 1217 Sunset Boulevard in the same little strip which used to house JackSon's Southern Kitchen. They appear to have some sort of sale going on.

Here is the West Metro News on the move.

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)

After 31 years in business, the owner of "this little store" is retiring. You can see her heartfelt goodbye on their Facebook.

In the meantime, if you're looking for a suit, the closing sale is on.

These (not particularly good -- I was on my way somewhere else) pictures are from 20 May 2023, the grand opening of The Dales Biergarten and Bottle Shoppe, which will be closing on 17 October with a bit over two years under its belt. Taking over from wedding venue The Springdale House & Gardens, The Dales aimed to be

a family friendly Biergarten and retail shop.

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The closing sites staffing issues, and the usual recent liability concerns.

You can read the venue's announcement here and stories from The State & Post & Courier here & here.

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)