Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Here's an older house set up as a restaurant on Lexington's South Lake Drive. I try to keep tabs on local pizza, but this one is not really local to me, and I'm afraid I had never heard of it before they closed up shop. The place kind of sits on a little hill, and I think it would have been nice to eat on the deck and look over the comings and goings on the road.

According to their sign, they are moving, but to where is not clear. Commenter Brian notes that the main chef has moved to All Star Pizza Company at 2001 Augusta Road.

(Hat tip to commenter Brian)

UPDATE 20 May 2018: The State says this will open as the second location of Cafe Strudel on 21 May 2018.

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The Raceway on the other river road (Bush River) closed and came back, and now this nearby Broad River Road Raceway has turned off the lights as well. I noticed that the prices on the huge marquee sign didn't look right, so I wasn't too surprised to see the place dark when I got up to it. I actually did stop here a few weeks ago (the only time in the whole period it was open, I think) and found it very hard to get in and out of, since there is no light. Both this and the Bush River location have the somewhat unusual "external bathroom" layout. I think anything built nowdays wants all that traffic to go past the merchandise..

UPDATE 22 December 2014 -- This place is open again (and has been for a while):

UPDATE 23 September 2016 -- Closed again:

UPDATE 27 March 2022 -- Now demolished:

Also adding map icon.

This little Mexican hole-in-the-wall got mixed reviews on the online sites, but seemed to have something of a following as a more authentic cusine choice than the standard Columbia mini-chains.

The LoopNet listing and indeed the roadside sale sign mention the slot is still a "fully equipped restaurant", and you can still see elements of the prvious decor through the windows. To me this says that a) the equipment was owned, not leased and b) the end came unexpectedly.

UPDATE 15 February 2022: Adding map icon.

Here's another Pig closing from last year. This one is on the East side of US-1 not too far from the Barnyard flea market. Interestingly, the address is Lexington, though I did not think Lexington started that far South.

Though several recently closed Pigs have become Bi-Los, there is no sign of another tenant for this one yet.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 1 March 2016 -- As mentioned in the comments, this is now KJ's IGA:

UPDATE 21 September 2022: Adding map icon. Updating tags.

Well, that didn't last too long.

Spunky's Auto Sales was the follow-on operation to Prestige Hitech Autowerks which moved down the street into the old Dick Dyer bodyshop. They opened sometime last fall (the picture I have is from October 2013) and lasted, I'm thinking, until last month (April 2014).

I continue to like the gull-wing lights at these old service stations. The roofline is nice too.

UPDATE 20 November 2015 -- This place has been extensively remodeled and is to become a gas station:

pix 8 August 2015

pix 16 August 2015

pix 23 August 2015

pix 12 September 2015

pix 18 October 2015

pix 6 November 2015

UPDATE 14 March 2016 -- Almost ready to open as King Fuel. It appears the store only needs to be stocked:

This little financial center was in the old A & P shopping center at the top of the hill on Sunset Drive. Most recently the complex was a church, but there remained a few commercial storefronts during that phase. In fact, as far as I can tell, the adjacent beauty parlor is still open for business.

Apart from the old "steeple" style A & P architecture, this part of the plaza is interesting for the skylights which you can see in the fifth picture. Somehow the name Cash-O-Matic invokes the same era as the buildings.

UPDATE 21 June 2022: Updating tags and adding map icon.

UPDATE 27 April 2025: I am adding "Shopping Center" to the post title after "Cash-O-Matic" because the whole place looks to be about to go. I stopped by a week or two ago, and noticed that the building on the right hand end (which I think was last some sort of Dollar General-ish store) has either undergone a partial demolition, or the roof just fell in. Does anyone know if this strip ever had a name? I can't ever recall seeing a roadside sign for the place as a whole.

To answer my own questions, this was Sunset Shopping Center, and the property was bought by a church to build apartments, but the job eventually turned out to be to big for them to handle, so they are now working with a third party developer on the project.

I have changed the "Shopping Center" in the post title to "Sunset Shopping Center"

Old:

New:

Starbucks has now moved from its original Woodhill location by Panera Bread down to the corner formerly occupied by Qdoba.

The new location gives it a drive through window, but perhaps more importantly in my view, moves it away from Panera. It has never made much sense to me to have a coffee and pastry shop located... right next to a shop that sells better coffee and pastries in a more comfortable setting. Without the drive-through all they had going for them was staying open a little later.

UPDATE 30 November 2021: Updating tags and adding map icon.

This old school car wash on Harbison actually does have a clear view as it is half way up the hill that descends to Bower Parkway.

I'll admit that I never really noticed it until commenter Homer (and others) mentioned that it was gone. It seems a bit out of place on the current Harbison, where you would expect land to now be too expensive for such uses. Given the owner's retirement message on the sign, I suspect it had been there quite a while.

Personally, I've never seen the attraction of car wash scents. Whenever I forget to say no scent, I end up with watering eyes until I can clear it out again...

(Hat tip to commenter Homer)

UPDATE 14 September 2015 -- As noted by commenter Homer, this place has now been mostly razed:

UPDATE 14 March 2016 -- As noted in the comments, now open as Del Taco:

Tony's Party Shop was on Saint Andrews Road in a Seven Oaks Shopping Center outparcel (not far from the former Irmo K-Mart).

Commenter Homer noted the closing, and sent in a set of pictures here. I took these two sets of pictures several weeks apart. The property is currently up for sale as shown in this listing

(Hat tip to commenter Homer)

UPDATE 27 April 2014 -- An earlier version of this post assumed the owner had passed away. Happily that seems to be wrong.

UPDATE 8 February 2017 -- These photos are from commenter Homer, who says:

I've attached 3 new pictures from Tony's Party Shop. I thought they were
getting ready to demolish it but it turns out they have gutted it to the
bare walls and have been working on the inside of the part that used to
be the actual liquor store. There's no signage anywhere so I have no
idea what may be in the works.