Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Mostly you should not expect many "new" closings during this odd hiatus, and this is no exception:

This GNC was in the Walmart center on Bush River Road. I'm not sure when it closed. I have looked back several years in phonebooks, but don't see it listed. Unfortunately, I did not get a book last year or this, so it could be very recent. I will just say 2019-ish for now.

Well, I had to go out to mail something the other day, and decided I might as well check out the Steak n' Shake in Blythewood.

There has already been some discussion of this in various comments, with commenter Sidney putting this down to the classic real-estate trifecta: Location, location, location!. I'm sure that has something to do with it, but I believe the chain is having trouble in general. In particular, I know they exited Myrtle Beach last year and were having lots of problems even before the current mess.

The linked article says they closed 107 restaurants that "could not deliver excellent customer service" in 2019, so something is going on. Wikipedia says they adopted a new franchaise model in 2018, so perhaps that is not working out for them. Apparently some restaurants will re-open as counter-service only operations -- I do not know if this one will be among that group.

I have never eaten at a Steak n' Shake -- Columbia's only other one closed years ago, and has been razed -- but it has always been on my list to try someday. Oh well.

(Hat tip to commenter Shut it Down)

Aladdin occupied the spot formerly allocated to the Saint Andrews branch of Capitol Newsstand, and was apparently more of a grocery than a restaurant, at least according to both their name and their Yelp reviews.

I had thought they had closed several years ago, but I see they listed in the 2018 phonebook, so I will say "2018" for the closing date. They have been replaced by one of the inexplicable raft of new crab restaurants in town.

I noticed recently that Frank's Discount Tire on Fairlane Drive is now Mavis Discount Tire. I don't have any experience with either business, but I have to say Frank's had the nicer sign. Of course I'm a sucker for neon.

As mentioned by commenter Andrew, Tripp's Fine Cleaners have closed their Saint Andrews Road location. Looking at their sign, I think the closest next location to here is probably the old Piggly Wiggly location on Lake Murray Boulevard.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

This old Hardee's building has had a number of incarnations over the years. I apparently totally missed the Top Shelf Tavern phase which commenter Andrew pointed out in the Hardee's comments, but now the follow-on operation to that, Home Team Tavern is also gone and the place back on the market.

Judging by the Facebook Page, they were still doing events on 15 February 2020, so I'm marking the closing as "Mid February".

Carolina Cafe in Westland Square on Sunset Boulevard, which had been in this location since 2014, closed in early December so the owners could concentrate on their downtown business at 925 Sumter Street in Cornell Arms, according to ColaDaily.

The new owner already had plans for the spot, so the storefont did not sit empty for long, and is now open again as Sunshine Cafe & Catering, though the marquee sign has yet to be fully adjusted. ColaDaily noted the opening:

Sunshine Café, located at 2250 Sunset Blvd. in the Westland Shopping Center, will still offer beloved menu items like fresh-baked bagels and paninis, similar to the previous restaurant. However, owner Shutondia Culcleasure said Sunshine Cafe will be incorporating a “sweeter side” to the menu.

“We’ll have a variety of cheesecakes, red velvet, German chocolate, just a whole sweeter side to the bakery,” she said.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

I'm not really sure when this Enterprise moved to 2638 Two Notch, but at any rate, I just noticed it, so I'm going to start by tagging it Early 2019. Despite the fact that a cousin briefly worked for the chain, I've never rented from Enterprise, though the car-delivery thing goes sound nice.

The first shots are from May 2015. I mostly took them for the clouds, but figured they might come in handy someday.

I was not aware of the tea-derived drink called Kombucha until I saw the news of this place closing. From the Coladaily article on the opening of The Favored Life in March of 2019, it sounds like an interesting process:

For those who are unfamiliar with the fermented drink, Gramblin described the process the tea undergoes to become kombucha: “First you start with sweet tea, and you put it in a fermentation jar. I use a ‘scoby,’ which [stands for] a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast – you have to grow it,” she said. “You stick them inside the gallon jar, and that eats the sugar out of the sweet tea, and outputs CO2. It takes all the sweetness out and replaces it with that fizzy taste.” She then removes the scoby, strains the liquid, and adds flavor with organic juices. The whole process takes approximately two weeks.

I like tea, but I'm not sure about fizzy tea. I guess I'm not against trying some. At any rate, as the Free Times reported, Columbia was possibly not ready for Kombucha, and The Favored Life closed its doors as a retail establishment in September or October of 2019.

The Carolina Strip Club steak-house was the follow-on operation in this spot to Bull Market & Taverna, something I was not aware of when I drove by, or I might have stopped and gotten pictures from the other side of the building as well for comparision.

According to The Free Times, the owner put the closure down to building issues and wants to try again in West Columbia:

“I love doing business in Columbia, I was just having some major issues with the building,” Segal explains. “I couldn’t afford to put all that money into it with all the problems.”

So far, I do not see anything about future plans on their Facebook page.

(Hat tip to commenter Heath Roberts)