Columbia Closings   What’s not in Columbia anymore

Grandma's replaced China Garden in the old Kesters Bamboo House building back in late 2009, when the first two pictures above were taken.

In the event, it seems to have lasted about three years (and to never have gotten a finished sign as seen in the third picture taken around July 2012).

The next, and current, iteration is Kildare's Irish Pub.

I noticed this defunct strip club on Bluff Road the other day, on the west side of the road just south of the I-77 exit.

According to what I can find, it has been several clubs, the last of which Diamonds was in business as recently as 2009, but from the state of the building, nobody has done any maintenance since then. (Though it is still in better shape than Liquids).

The names raise some interesting questions. For instance, there was a Diamonds on Berryhill Road. Is there a connection? And: If this was Pleasers 2, where was Pleasers 1?

It is next door to a building even more decrepit about which I will try to find something out so I can eventually do a closing for it as well.

UPDATE 29 October 2012: Commenter tonkatoy says that back in the 70s, this was The Cricket Club. Bit of a sticky wicket, that!

Update 5 November 2012: Well one of the questions above is answered. Commenter BMJae says that the club was named Pleasers and then was closed due to fire, taking the name Pleasers 2 upon reopening after repair and remodel. I have added the name Pleasers to the post title.

As far as I know, this Mr. B's, a nightclub on Two Notch between Club Fantasy Island and New York Subs & Wings, has no connection with Mr. B's Railroad Tavern -- "Mr. B's" just seems to be a more common establishment name than you might think.

I am pretty sure that I saw the nightclub open earlier this year, so "2012" will have to do as a closing date, especially as they don't seem to have had a phonebook listing.

I originally thought they had the whole building to the left of the sub shop, but a little further googling leads me to find that the left part, 3132 Two Notch has its own history, so I will do a closing on that later.

This little building is just to the left of the Dessi Short Stop III building, and google doesn't turn up a whole lot about it.

All I know is that On 27 November 2002 the building, which was to operate as a restaurant and nightclub, was denied beer & wine and mini-bottle permits due to an objection (considered by the court) from the Richland County Sherriff's office, and that on 26 December 2011, the place (which was referred to only as "a former nightclub") caught fire despite the electricty being turned off.

"Boss! The Plane! The Plane!" — Sorry, but that had to be said

I'm not quite sure what is going on with Club Fantasy Island, a tiny strip club on Two Notch Road which basically shares a parking lot with the old Shrimper restaurant and the old Atlantic Twin Theater. (As I recall, the club got a bit of notoriety some years ago when there was a shooting in the parking lot, but I'm not sure if the incident was actually related to the club itself, a neighboring club, or was random.)

Anyway, I took these pictures back in early March 2012 because I had noticed that when driving down Two Notch at times the club should normally be open, it wasn't. I almost went ahead and did a closing on it then, but one night somewhat later when I drove by, it was open once more, and I saw it open normally after that. Then, in June, I think, it was closed again, so I don't know exactly what the status is, but if they re-open again, I'll just update the post title.

Though I never went, it seems to me as though Jungle Jim's was there forever. I think I can remember seeing it when I visited The Parthenon in the 1970s.

As you can see from these pictures, it at least made the transition from the China Garden era to the Grandma's era as the front part of the building in which the bar is located changed concepts. (I believe that the whole building at 724 is under one ownership). Notice how the sign on the north side of the parking lot morphed from

China
Garden
Parking
Only
Towing
Enforced

to

Parking
Only

I'm not sure when Jungle Jim's closed, but it is listed in the February 2012 phonebook, so I am going with "early 2012". The follow-on operation, Rum Runners switches from a jungle theme to a pirate concept, supported by deck murals.

I know I took some pictures of this under-awning vacancy at Polo Plaza at least a year ago, possibly longer. In the event, I never could determine what had been there, and so never did a post on it.

I was going to Time Warner Cable in the same plaza the other day and noticed that the two suites were still vacant, so I decided to put it out there and see if anyone remembered what was there last.

The street address is 9810 Two Notch Road, and the two store fronts are designated "9-D" & "10-C" according to the stenciling. I notice however that other references to the plaza use only the suite letters, as in this LoopNet listing

UPDATE 8 July 2012: Commenter Clay identifies this place as a former Gooney Birds and then GB's, so I have changed the post title from "Storefronts" to that. I found that GB's Grill & Bar was listed in the Feb 1997 phonebook, so it was there at least until then. There's a gap in my phonebooks, but it appears that WG's closed in 2007.

UPDATE 9 December 2012: Add Sharee's to the post title based on commenter Natalie's info.

I couldn't help but notice this biker friendly bar, the The Ramble Inn, on US-19 just South of Necklace Warbler Road in Hernando County Floridy recently as I drove past.

Obviously, the place had seen better times, and google reveals that it burned down on 15 August 2010 and that arson is suspected though it does not appear that anyone was ever arrested.

Well, this one is ripped from the headlines -- It seems that on the morning of Thursday 8 March 2012, somebody set fire to Club Crush (aka Crush Gentlemens Club) on River Drive just down from a defunct Cash / Title shop and the old A&P.

OK, I'm jumping the gun on the theory that it was arson, but given the recent history of the club (a woman was shot on 1 March and a tow truck driver was shot at on 7 March), I doubt that it just *happened to catch fire.

Actually I find the story of the woman being shot all the more remarkable in that it recapitulates the most famous incident to happen at this building. In both cases people inside the building were shot by bullets coming in from outside the club. Luckily, the woman is said to not be gravely injured -- in the first incident a man was killed. As I recall the story, the fatal incident happened while the building was occupied by Chastitys Gold Club. It seems that a man (a lawyer in fact!) was attempting to take liberties with a dancer that neither she nor club management would countenance, and the man was thrown out of the club, whereupon he went home, got a gun, came back and fired through the (closed) front door, killing a club employee.

I don't think that Chastitys ever really recovered from the bad publicity, and after limping on for a while, closed in 2009. The building shortly re-opened as another strip club, Savannahs Gentlemens Club (no apostrophies anywhere..) which didn't last too long and was replaced by Club Crush in late 2010 or 2011.

In fact, this building has always seemed to have sort of a revolving door problem. I was amused recently when both The State and The Free Times reported on Richland County mooting a change to zoning rules to close county stripclubs, and both papers seemed to believe that Chastitys was still open (unsurprisingly they noted they were unable to get a comment from the owners about the proposed regulations, given that the club was long gone..). Some other businesses I know of in this building were Coconuts Inc, The Club House and Crockmeyer's,which all sound like night clubs, and Swipe USA which doesn't. (In fact, I'm not sure what that sounds like..).

I'm not sure about Club Crush, but the building itself did not appear badly damaged, and based on history, I predict a club will be open there again soon, whatever the name.

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