There's already been a good bit of discussion on this in Have Your Say but Utopia Food & Spirits, a local music venue and restaurant across from Cross Hill Market, has closed after suffering extensive electrical damage on 20 June.
Although I posted about their move from Rosewood to this location, I'm afraid the place was not really on my radar, but they seem to have been doing good work providing a showcase for local bands. Unfortunately repairing all the damage was just too expensive given the current economy.
I have to admit that since I don't like clothes shopping and since nobody has ever mistaken me for someone who does sports, I couldn't place this storefront in my mind and had to drive around the plaza looking for it. In the event, it turns out to be in the suite formerly occupied by La Bag Lady which closed in 2012.
I see this storefront has already attracted another business: Laptops For Less. It's a little odd that the Radio Shack marquee is still up there. Usually a chain which is still in some form of existence wants their logo off of former locations. And there *are* still some open stores though the present continued existence of RS as an entity is pretty tenuous at the moment.
Harrell's Bicycle World apparently sold out to Bike Street USA in 2014, but that operation, which also bought out Bike To Nature did not long survive the expansion, apparently liquidating in November of 2014. It appears the chain's main strategy was buying out local stores and then functioning as sort of an IGA for the bicycle market:
Coming off of I-77 and heading downtown on Saturday gave a really stunning view of Charlotte's downtown. The sky was dotted with puffy clouds and the skyscrapers were laid out almost artistically. I really wish I could have pulled over and gotten a shot.
I was headed to the Convention Center for this years iteration of Charlotte's Heroes Convention which I have been checking out out over the years as often as I could since the days when it was a few meeting rooms at the old Holiday Inn on Woodlawn.
This year, I didn't attend any of the panels as it took all of my time just to completely canvas the main show floor. My impression is that Guardians Of The Galaxy is a new hit with costumers, though there was no single theme for the majority of costumes. I think I did notice a bit of fall-off in the Frozen costumes since Amelia Con. Stan Lee was there for photo-shoots, but the line was so long that I didn't attempt to see him. There were plenty of other creators there as well, and I bought a number of indie books for myself and my nieces, more than I've scanned below.
Anyway, it's not a bad drive (I-77 seemed a little less pot-holed this time) and there's a reasonable nearby lot, so if you get the chance next year, I recommend you check it out.
I don't get out to Pontiac very often, so I was only vaguely aware of this little strip mall near Pontiac House Of Pizza, but it looks like there are a couple of vacancies right now.
[23 October 2025]: I was looking through some old mail today and found some pictures from commenter Homer which I couldn't recall if I had used on the Tim's Gas Depot post, so I went looking for it, and could not find it!
I finally came to the conclusion that it was a post lost in one of the two times Godaddy has lost my database. (I take backups now, though heaven help me if I have to figure out how to restore one!). Anyway, knowing what to look for, I was able to find the post on the Wayback Machine at archive.org, so here, for your viewing pleasure, it is again (I am forcing it to the top for today, but resetting the posting date to 2015 so it will be the right place in the history):
Today's post and pix come from commenter Homer, who says:
Ted, I am going to send you several emails with pictures of Tim's Gas Depot that left 7334 Woodrow St., Irmo on May 31st to move to their new location at 7960 Broad River Rd. Tim specializes in gas fireplaces and inserts, grills, propane tank refills and just about anything that has to do with LP or natural gas.
I remember fondly the propane heat at my Aunt's house, and the way the smell and warmth of it would hit you as you walked into the kitchen from the non heated part of the house..
(Hat tip to commenter Homer, obviously)
UPDATE 16 June 2015 -- Changed address from 7334 to 7336 Woodrow based on Homer's comment (and the note I should have remembered)
UPDATE 23 October 2025: Restored post, added map icon. I will also note that Tim's Gas Depot is still on Broad River, and online here.
The only time I ever ate at a Sam's Corner was Monday 30 June 1997.
I was living in Aiken at the time (and working in Augusta), but found out less than a week in advance that The Beach Boys were playing the House of Blues in North Myrtle Beach that day. It was a rare small venue appearance, and I think many fans realized it was probably one of the last chances to see Carl Wilson on stage. In the event it was a bittersweet performance. Carl played most of the set seated and I think everyone in the audience could tell he was not long for the world, though he still sounded like an angel.
At any rate, when the show was over, with it not being a weekend, I was on the hook to be at work the following morning, so I fortified myself at the NMB Sam's with a hot-dog and coffee and made it back to Aiken (after further fortification with Waffle House coffee in Manning) in time to slip into bed half an hour before I had to get up. It was not something I could do now, and could barely do then.
Truthfully I was so focused on what I had to do that Sam's made little impression on me other than it was well lit, had an acceptable chili-dog and drinkable coffee.
I think the NMB location was the second for the chain, with one by the pier in Garden City being the first.
This location on US-17 in Pawleys Island came much later, and was, I think, something of a miss-step as the South Strand is a much different place from Myrtle Beach or even Garden City. I had noticed over the few years it was open that despite the proudly proclaimed 24 Hours in fact during the off season, it was rarely open past 10, and lately wasn't open at all except during the summer. I even did a post on the dark building called 25th Hour a few months ago.
On my last trip down over the Memorial Day week I saw that the place is now officially closed, even though they apparently had a plan to upfit the office space.
CrowsonStone is a name that was a constant presence when I was growing up. Since nobody in my family, and in fact nobody I knew ever needed a printer's services, I can only think this was because they (along with R. L. Bryan with whom I often got them confused) advertised constantly on WIS AM.
You don't really hear much of this anymore, but it used to be that a lot of non-retail operations would advertise on the radio. I guess the theory was that while it was unlikely that any given listener would need a printer (and back in the days before digital, that was no casual purchase!) keeping the name out there was good business in the "Oh yeah, I've heard of them, they should be OK" sort of way.
I'm not sure when this building, at the east end of Shop Road, was built. The February 1997 phonebook lists Crowson Ston at 819 Main Street, while the February 2006 book lists both Main Street and Shop Road, so this location probably came online in the early 2000s.
I did a closing for this Eagle's when it moved from it's old location further down SAR to this spot. Now it appears that they have left Irmo entirely, though they still have stores in the Midlands.
