Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I have seen Hwy 55 operations pop up here and there in the area and on the coast, but I have never gotten around to trying one. Apparently it's a North Carolina outfit that started out as Andy’s Cheesesteaks & Cheeseburgers. Not that I get to Elgin often anyway, but it looks like I won't be trying one here.

The Free Times has a bit on the closing of this location, saying that it is to become a fast-casual Greek operation, Gyromania Grill sometime in February or March.

(Hat tip to commenter Thomas)

This building featured here a while ago as a Hot Spot, which was closed for a while, re-opened, and then converted to an O M Mart.

Now it appears that the O M Mart reflagged as a Sunoco at some point, and is now closed again, though apparently on a temporary basis.

(Hat tip to commenter Cindy)

I never ate at La Fiesta, though I did eat in the building when it was a Shoney's. It had been here for many years however, before closing on a temporary basis in the Spring of 2022. They came back after that, but have now called it a day.

Here is their Facebook, which pretty much recapitulates the information on the door sign.

(Hat tip to commenter Heath)

Shopping center St Andrews Center (the former Clusters of Whitehall) suffered a fire during the night of 16 January 2023. I have not seen any update on the cause, but the initial reports were fairly sketchy. Here is one from The State with a picture of the blaze in progress.

Looking at the buildings on 21 January, it appeared to me that the damage was mostly confined to the west building, on the side that fronts Bush River Road. Basically that comes down to two businesses, a night club, Sugar Daddy's Jazz Cafe / Red Beans & Rize Jazz Cafe and a hair salon, Hair Power. The next storefront away from those two is a church, which was reported by commenter Gypsie as planning to go ahead with their next service as scheduled.

(Hat tip to commenter Homer)

The Gap location in Columbiana Centre closed this week, leaving the brand with no locations in the Midlands.

Here is The State on the story, and The Post & Courier weighs in here. In particular, the P&C story mentions the mall shooting, about which I had already forgotten, which took place in the corridor outside the store -- I don't know if that were a factor in the closing as the chain has plenty of problems overall, but it can't have helped.

(Hat tip to commenter Lone Wolf)

This location of The Southern Belly opened in the 2015 timeframe, and apparently ran concurrently with their Rosewood location for a while. There was no media notice of this closing, and google still thinks they are open.

Their Facebook page, however, suggests that they were "Gone With The Wind" as of 11 December 2022.

(Hat tip to commenter Heath)

The Broad River Road location of Philly Pretzel Factory closed in October of 2020, but this location, in the Publix plaza on Rosewood, soldiered on for another two years. As far as I can tell from their final Facebook posting, 30 December was the last day here.

I believe I only went by this store once -- I was expecting a buttery pretzel like Auntie Anne's, and found these a bit dry. Also, the parking was a little sparse on that side of the building.

Here is a very brief State story on the closing.

(Hat tip to commenter MB)

The company has been in trouble for a while, and according to The State announced last September that they would be closing 150 of its 700 stores. This Sparkleberry Square location is one of those, but apparently the Harbison and Garners Ferry locations will stay open, at least for now.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

This closing is rather interesting as there doesn't seem to have been any media coverage of it, and Google still thinks the place is open. Looking at Wikipedia and googling for news in general does not suggest the chain is in trouble, so I'm not sure what was going on here.

(Hat tip to commenter Mia)

This is a shame as this Baskin-Robbins was my go-to for milkshakes & ice cream. Not that I went that often, but it was pleasant on a summer night to get something cold and hang around in the warm evening outside for a while.

I believe this closing leaves Forest Acres without an ice-cream parlor for the first time in my life. There is still Zesto for a chocolate-dip, but as much as I like soft-serve now and then, it's not really the same thing.

I'm not sure what's up with the construction, but apparently someone jumped the gun a bit.

(Hat tip to commenter Larry)