Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

5 Brand Ink Tattoo was in the old Godfather's Pizza location in this Parklane strip mall abuting Columbia Mall. I can't find them in any of my phonebooks, so that may not have been the official name for the place, but flipping the reversed marquee around shows that's definitely what was on the storefront.

This suite is now a church, which is a contrast to the devil-heads on the old marquee.

It's curious since I drive this stretch of road several times a week that I have no memory of ever seeing this building in operation as Gandy Auto Sales, but Google Street View has the image, and the phonebook confirms they were there at least since 2008.

There appears to be some sort of land clearing going on in the lot just adajacent to this one on the east.

As I believe I've said before, I think the name of this Two Notch couples' store is about a syllable short..

This place was for many years a risque book, magazine and video store, which rebranded in 2012 and was open at least through Cinco de Mayo 2016 (NSFW).

Considering the place was open from 1981 and considering how much I like pizza and Italian food in general, I'm not sure how I was totally unaware of Tony's. Perhaps because of the location, if ever I saw it, I thought "no parking", or perhaps it's because they closed at 2:30 and it would always be later when I would drive by -- I don't really know. At any rate, this Washington Plaza storefront is vacant now.

(Hat tip to commenter Julie)

I remember once finding a whole joke book of "Ford" (ie: Model-T) jokes at my aunt's house once. At this remove, I can only recall two of them:

Q: Why do all new Fords now have to be painted red?

A: Because the law says any tin can filled with gasoline must be red.

Q: Why is the Ford the only car to be mentioned in The Bible?

A: Because no other car can ascend to Heaven "on high".

I'm not sure new cars are better than the Model-T, but jokes have come a long way.

Anyway, as of early May 2016, Dick Smith Ford has relocated from their Two Notch home out to 7201 on the Sumter Highway, the old Marion Burnside and Jim Hudson location:

Read the rest of this entry »

This is another place I had meant to go by in the daytime, but I was there when I was..

The Ape Hanger was the leftmost of the three very similar buildings in this little hardluck plaza on Two Notch a bit east of Fontaine. It was the followup operation to The Bargain Warehouse.

From what I can tell, they were a moped, motorcycle and ATV store. The Bargain Warehouse signage was still up late in 2011, so apparently they opened in 2012, and their last Facebook posting is 20 November 2012, so I'm going to say they closed early in 2013.

This kid's activity center moved into this old NAPA Auto Parts building some time late in 2012. I'm not sure exactly when they closed -- I just noticed the empty building and the real estate sign a few weeks ago, but I see that the LoopNet listing for the property was created on 17 October 2014, so I'm just saying "2014".

The building has been sold, so we should have something else here soon.

I only went to Moe's Grapevine once. It was many years ago, when, I believe, I was still living out of town. I don't remember much about it other than it was perfectly OK as far as the food went, and that I saw a waitress who knew me from another Columbia restaurant.

I never got in the habit of going there however because after that, it seemed every time I drove by the place was closed. I realize I keep odd meal hours, but I would have expected to hit it sooner or later..

Commenter JB sends this link to a Free Times story on the closing.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

I remember at one time having to figure out whether this little Latin Dance club behind the D's on Beltline was in fact a Mexican Restaurant or a nightclub. In the event, it proved to be the later, which was a little disappointing to me. As far as I know they were not affected by the 2011 fire at D's or the October 2015 flood, but I could be wrong.

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

UPDATE 13 February 2017 -- Here's an instructional video from the club:

I'm not sure what this little building in Landmark Square was originally, possibly one of those tiny hamburger drive-throughs that sprung up in the late 80s, but for a number of years it was what I thought of as The Elephant Ear place; I didn't know it was called J's Concessions until I did a google on the address.

The idea seems sound to me: People like "fair food", so why not open a permanent location for it? (They also had a food truck that used this as a base). Somehow I always end up only having Italian Sausage at the Fair; I probably should have stopped by.

Judging by the newspapers and Christmas lights, they closed up shop after the holidays.