Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Overstock moved into this location sometime after Bed Bath & Beyond went under in 2023. Now they are closing as well. Their Facebook doesn't give any end date, but apparently the final to-the-walls sale is in progress.

Actually I had just noticed this place several weeks ago, and thought to myself that sitting outside on the patio would be nice on a sunny fall afternoon, but like all too many places, I waited too long.

Iron Hill Brewery was a 29 year old company according to USA Today, with 19 locations along the east coast. There were signs of trouble recently as the company closed its original store, and two others. The trouble came home on 25 September when they closed the remaining 16 stores, and filed for bankruptcy. The USA Today story does not specify what chapter was filed, but the company's closing note made hopeful noises about a return someday.

Interestingly, I see from the closing list that they had opened a location in Geenville at 741 Haywood Road, the site of a former favorite place of mine, Don Pablo's, although I don't believe I ever did a closing on it.

You can check WIS, WLTX, or The State for (some) details on the local closure, which is a bit of a blow for The Bull Street District.

When I went by on Sunday, there were definitely people inside the place, I don't know if they were packing up, or evaluating the building, but it seems like a pretty nice one, so hopefully something new will come in before too long.

(Hat tip to commenter Heath)

I have the feeling that this place had a different name when I was growing up, and indeed you can see that the current marquee seems to be installed over a, different, previous one. During those years, it was not at all unusual for a "real" store to be in downtown Fernandina. There was a grocery store where the antique mall is now, Wass Drugs, the local department store, run by by a childhood friend of my father, a gas station, and several sundries shops. Now it is all pretty much restaurants and touristy shops -- not that I don't enjoy that, but a bit of the character of a "working city" is gone.

I don't have many specific memories of the hardware store, except that I'm pretty sure my father would walk over from my aunt's house now and then to pick up things for the various small repair projects he did for her on our visits, such as tacking the stair-covers down again. As it happens, I needed a dowel when I was in town in December of 2023, and walked over from the hotel and got one. The place was very old-school of the sort you don't see much anymore -- think the downton (not Five Points") incarnation of Hiller Hardware.

They have been trying to sell the building for a couple of years, and this summer seemed to have stepped up the efforts, and posted official closing signs. I'm unclear if they are still open at this time or not -- I don't see anything online, and google doesn't have them down as "closed", but if not, it's just a matter of time.

The Woody moved from the Vista to this Main Street corner in 2020, and continued in operation after the passing of founder Woody Windham last year. Unfortunately with the new SC liquor liability laws, the family is unable to keep the doors open past October.

They say they hope to open in a new location as a real restaurant, but there are no firm plans for that yet.

In the meantime, the upstairs neighbor, Hendrix, will be taking over the space to open a pizza restaurant.

You can read about the closing in ColaDaily, The Post & Courier, The State, and on WLTX.

It seems to me that South Carolina's nightlife scene has been greatly altered almost surreptitiously & through the back door.

The Killian Road area I Heart Mac & Cheese closed in November 2023, and I had visited it a few times, and thought it was OK if pricey & slow. This location, at the corner of Platt Springs & Emanuel Church roads, I had not visited. However my sister & niece did go a few times and liked it pretty well.

Judging by Google reviews, and a report from my sister, the hours had become rather erratic recently, which is a subcase of Sign #1.

The State noted the closing here, and the opening here. WLTX also noted the opening.

The media and street address posit this spot as West Columlbia, but this far out, I would have thought Springdale, South Congaree or just Lexington County.

Il Bucato replaced Ed Robinson Laundry & Dry Cleaning in late 2020 after the worst of the pandemic, but when running a take-out restaurant still made sense. Looking at the Google reviews, it appears to have had a pretty good run up until the past few months, when a lot of reviews mentioned staffing issues. There was also one gentleman called out by name as exemplary, and then a few reviews later there is one (purportedly) from him, saying that he was moving on.

I can't find anything official online about the closing, but here is an article from ColaDaily about the opening.

(Hat tip to commenter Nobody)

I almost did not get to the annual Greek Festival this year, and in fact I zipped in after dark Saturday night just long enough to pick up some baklava and bread (which I had with both garlic & honeybell marmalade [at different times!]). Unfortunately I got there too late for the galaktoboureko and sesame wafers. It was about 8pm, but there was still a pretty good crowd. Hope you were able to get by, hope I plan better next year (which I say each year...)

Commenter Badger points out this old quonset hut on Garners Ferry Road just east of the Old Garners Ferry Road fork. Regular google search doesn't bring up a lot of information about it, but we can get some old StreetView pictures to tie down two incarnations:

September 2007: A window tinting operation; I can't quite make out the name:

June 2008: I can't quite make out the name here either, but some sort of plant and/or produce stand:

August 2011: Still the same place I think, but with a better sign saying something like Produce & Plants Food Mart. If you move around a little the first word might be Mulligan's:

The plants and produce operation was gone by November 2014, and the place seems to have been vacant since then.

Restaurant models come in waves, for instance crab-themed seafood places, and there has been a wave of coffee drive-throughs lately, to include 7Brew, Clutch, Hard Bean, The Human Bean & Canal Coffee. Scooter's was part of that wave and opened here on Garners Ferry Road in 2023, part of a number of local openings as reported by The State.

The closing note on the drive-through doesn't really give any details, but a non-official Reddit posting suggests that only stores owned by WalReedBev Co are affected, and that does match the names given by The State.

(Hat tip to commenter Trevin)

Sylvan's has been in this spot on Main Street approximately forever, or accurately since 1905. I was today years old when I learned that the official name is no longer Sylvan Brothers, and that the Sylvan family has not been involved since 1985. Still, it remains a family store, now owned by the Schiffman family.

The Sylvan clock, along with the now vanished Standard Savings & Loan clock has always been a key part of my memories of the area, and I am happy to learn that it will remain where it has stood since 1906.

The store will be moving into the former Wet Willies building on Gervais Street sometime this fall. A non-specific October date is mentioned a few places, but I have not seen an exact one. Likewise, I believe I heard something about a moving sale, but have not seen anything in print about that.

In the meantime, you can read about the move here & here.