Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Soul food purveyors Kiki's Chicken & Waffles have left their old, cramped, digs in Fortune Square, and have moved into the old Sticky Fingers location at Columbia Mall.

Judging from the parking lot Sunday 6 March, they will have no trouble filling the larger building..

Well, this is the end of an era. Edna's on River Drive predates me into this world by something over a year, so has been a Columbia institution longer than I've been alive. Of course, it has been an institution in a part of the town we used to think of as far away, so if we ever ate here growing up, it was long enough ago, and infrequently enough that I can't remember it. I'll have to try to remedy that before 31 March.

This kind of walk-up, no inside dining restaurant used to be common. In fact that's the way I recall Bell's and the original Garners Ferry McDonald's. Nowdays it is much less common, though you can still see remnants of the style, now worked around, in Zesto and Dairy Bar. I love the common-sense practicality of the cement blocks shorter customers can stand on to bring them up to window level.

Edna's also had an affiliated located at 2200 Two Notch Road, in a building that is still there, and a third location off Forest Drive, which was razed some years ago.

Here is a nice appreciation of Marie Rose Tyner, who ran the restaurant for many years and passed in the summer of 2015.

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This small urban clothing botique is in the storefront that was the final location for Forest Lake TV. It's listed in the February 2015-2016 phonebook(*), and I think I would have noticed it being vacant for many months as I drive by there several times a week, so I'm going to peg the closing as "late 2015".

(*) For some reason I still have not received a February 2016-2017 phonebook..

I have noticed this little strip on Decker driving by over the years, mostly because of Piper's Hair Care uwhich I never could quite figure out if it were closed or not. (It was). Now the whole place is empty and for let.

It's certainly not the worst looking real estate on the corridor.

UPDATE 17 June 2021 -- This place has now been gutted:

Also adding map icon.

UPDATE 15 September 2021 -- remodeling continues:

UPDATE 30 September 2022 -- Apparently after the rebuild, this will be newly branded as Plaza Del Sol, and and insurance agency is already slated to feature:

I'm not sure where the movie theater was originally in Fernandina. I know there was one, at least since the 1920s. My father told me that one of his tasks as a child was to accompany the old lady who was the theater organist to the theater for special early showings so she could see the movie and work out what she was going to play. (I'm not sure what function he performed exactly, or why this would have been a task given to a ten year old). One of the movies he always remembered with disappointment was 1925's "The Phantom Of The Opera" with Lon Cheney in the title role. Disappointment because about 20 minutes into the showing, the organist stood up and said "I've seen enough", and he never got to see the ending, something he regretted for 70 years, although I finally was able to get him a VHS of it in the 1990s if I recall correctly.

For most of my life, or at least for as long as I can recall seeing movies in Fernandina, the movie theater in town was on 14th Street near the new hospital. I know I saw probably at least a dozen movies there over the years, but for some reason the only one that I can specifically recall was a re-release of A Christmas Story with Ralphie shooting his eye out..

On my recent Star Wars pilgrimage, I was surprised and saddened to see the 14th Street theater closed. I found out later that there as a new multiplex out on A1A, complete with BigD large format screen. It appears that both theaters are Carmike properties and that there was an orderly transition, including staff retention from the closing of the old theater and the opening of the new one.

Here's the new complex, in the A1A strip next to the Winn-Dixie:

UPDATE 2 March 2016: My sister has clarified my opening anecdote somewhat. She informs me that one of my father's older brothers worked for the theater and would run the advance screenings for the music lady. He let my father sit in on those screenings, so it was the older brother's job to help out the music lady, not my father's.

Commenter Brian mentioned that BJ's Cafe near Richland Memorial appeared to be closed.

I drove by, and found that was in fact the case, but that there were a number of workers inside the building, so something is happening there, either a remodel for the same operation, or an upfit for a new one.

The BJ's web site gives no additional information.

(Hat tip to commenter Brian)

UPDATE 26 May 2016 -- Now open as Sunset Grill & Pizza:

They don't work so well once they've been under water..

I'll also note that most of the parking lot at this old Captain's Kitchen location has now been torn up, I suppose for the greening of the former restaurant space.

And, we have a new cell tower:

Wet Willie's on Gervais has been mentioned in the comments lately, so I decided to swing by there after leaving Mellow Mushroom this evening to see what the state of the place is.

As reported, it is in fact closed, but the door sign leaves some hope that it may be back by 1 March 2016 after "sprucing up", although the web site given on the sign does not, in fact, have any relevant information that I can see.

I really like that building, by the way..

(Hat tip to commenter Dustin)

UPDATE 8 February 2018 -- The place did reopen some time ago:

UPDATE 9 January 2023: Well, after re-opening as described above, this location has now decided not to renew their lease as reported on their Facebook. The timing seems a bit odd, as I would have expected the lease to run to the end of the month, but perhaps they want some time to get their stuff out of there.

WLTX also has the story.

I'll get some new pictures soon, but in the meantime here is a 2010 vintage one I don't believe I have posted before:

Also, as long as I'm updating this, I'll edit the tags and add a map icon.

(Hat tips to commenters Jimmy, Gypsie & Heath)

UPDATE 3 February -- The building with the signage down:

As is often the case, I'm not clear exactly when Five Rivers Market, in the former Master Cleaners/Provisions slot on Millwood closed. I don't see it in my phonebooks at all, and online evidence is a bit confusing, but points so some time after 21 May 2015. As far as I can tell, the Orangeburg location is still open. (Hmm, they also have (had?) a location at the State Farmers' Market).

The storefront is now slated to become Crave Artisan Specialty Market opening around 1 March 2016.

I'm not sure when this little takeout storefront co-located with the garage on Fairlane closed, but it's in the February 2015-2016 phonebook, and I think I would have noticed it previously if it had been closed longer than a few months, so I'm tagging it as winter 2015. Reviews are rather mixed, but they'd been there for a good while, so they must have been doing something right.

UPDATE 25 May 2016 -- Now Saffron, an Indian/Chinese/Mexican takeout storefront: