Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

There was a time, when I was living in Fayetteville, that I went to Ryans's serveral times a week for lunch. They had a good salad bar with the unusual topping option of roasted peanuts instead of sunflower seeds. They also had hoops of cheddar on the salad bar, and with those and the hot yeast rolls, you could make a decent impromptu semi-melted cheese sandwich to go with the salad.

As it happened, my work colleagues and I eventually discovered that the nearby pool-hall (go figure..) actually had a better lunch buffet and we kind of fell out of going to Ryan's, but I had generally good memories of the place until I had the occasion to drop by the Georgetown location a few years ago and be generally unimpressed, a condition which continued through my one visit to this Two Notch Road location in the Wal-Mart outparcel. I get the feeling from the company's recent travails that perhaps I was not alone in my unimpressed state, and the chain recently announced the closure of 74 restaurants of which this was apparently one:

(Hat tips to commenters James R & Sidney)

UPDATE 29 October 2018 -- Now open as Magnolia Buffet:

Driving down Saint Andrews Road the other day, I noticed that the NAPA parts store formerly across from Seven Oaks Shopping Center has now actually crossed the street and is in Seven Oaks next to Big Lots.

I'm not sure, but the new sign suggests that the machine shop did not make the transition.

UPDATE 23 March 2018 -- This building is now Palmetto Thrift:

On my recent trip to Fernandina, I noticed that this convenience store on 8th Street (the main connector from off of the island to downtown) was closed. It's a store I've had my eye on for years as I really like the canted glass front. I believe the building has been there for my entire life (which does not make it old by Fernandina standards!), and it has to my eye a distinctive "50s" flair.

The front door sign says they are closed for remodeling: I hope this does not include razing the building and putting up something more current and less distinctive.

Not too long after noting the move of the Boozer location, I had occasion to mail something and dropped by the forest drive location of Nutrition Warehouse. Unfortunately, I found it closed and vacant. This is a shame, since while I never perused the vitamins and supplements the store offered, the contract Post Office was more convenient than the Trenholm Plaza USPS and generally had much faster service.

Chocolate Nirvana had the misfortune to choose the exact wrong time to move from their old Richland Street location to Fort Jackson Boulevard beside Gills Creek. In the event, they were devastated by the Great Flood Of 2015, and it now appears that they have given up on the building, which is currently for lease.

Their website leaves room to hope they may be back in another location, but I suspect the flood marks the end of this much repurposed building and would not be surprised to see it knocked down, though I'm not sure anything else could now be built on the lot.

UPDATE 18 March 2019 -- Not sure what is happening here, but some operation with a bull statue is setting up:

If this picture strikes you as hilarious, you would have been at the right place. If it doesn't mean anything to you, probably not:

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By this point, the fact that Jillian's in the Vista has closed their doors has been pretty extensively discussed in Have Your Say. I believe I had been there twice: Once for a class reunion, and once for a Swimming Pool Qs show. We were supposed to have a family event there about two years ago, but it turned out to be too crowded, and we ended up at Mellow Mushroom. About all I can recall from the times I was there was that it was too loud and busy to ever be a regular spot for me.

The State lays the closing at the feet of the Great Flood of 2015, saying that the 10 day closing and coverage denial by business interruption insurance sealed the deal. Commenters here tend to favor an accumulating straw theory in which the one which broke the camel's back would have come soon one way or the other.

(Hat tip to commenter April)

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Pizza Pizza! -- Little Caesar in Irmo has moved slightly down Saint Andrews Road from this spot at 6903 to the old Blockbuster at 7249:

Interestingly, when I was googling the address, I turned up a LoopNet listing with a much better picture than I was able to take against the sun -- but with the building clearly marqueed as Custom Pizza Co.

(Hat tip to commenter Homer)

Great Ceasar's Ghost!, I was sure I had done a closing for comic store Heroes & Dragons when they moved from their Boozer Shopping Center location next to Manifest and down the hill to 501 Bush River Road, but apparently not as it's not in Alphabetical Closings and google has no record of it. Maybe I just remember taking some pictures of it. At any rate, that's what they did, and now they have come almost full circle, moving back to Boozer, albeit not to exactly the same spot (which is now Dollar General).

Where they are moving to is the old Nutrition Warehouse spot I mentioned a few days ago.

Salsarita's is one of the Moe's-like Mexican chains that I have not tried. There's no particular reason for that, just that there weren't and aren't any in my usual haunts. TCBY I have visited many times over the years, though not at this location. They make a perfectly fine frozen yogurt, though I'm afraid that's something of a commodity at this point.

I'm no fan of Chipolte, but I have to think that the location opening down the hill from here at 619 Gervais Street cannot have helped matters.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

UPDATE 10 June 2021: Adding tags and map icon.