Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Stellini's was on the corner nearest to Columbia Mall at The Shops at O'Neil Court. I believe it was perhaps the longest lasting restaurant in that little hard-luck plaza, though as I recall the sports bar run by the Very's folks lasted a number of years as well.

This ad from the 1998 Bellsouth yellow pages claims the largest selection of pasta in Columbia. I actually can't remember much about that. If I am remembering correctly, the times we went there, what most impressed me was the garlic bread, which was strong and gooey, not that "hint of garlic on overbaked toast" thing some places do. I do think they had a number of pesto dishes which weren't too common at the time, but while I might try one now, at that point I was still fully in tomato-based mode.

I don't think business was ever great in this location despite theoretical drive-by traffic between Columbia Mall and Two Notch, and I wasn't too surprised when the place closed. I believe at least two other restaurants tried the spot (there was definitely one) but nothing ever lasted long-term, and currently the space is empty and available.

B & B Sports Lounge or simply B & B's if you go by the roof sign, is on Percival Road just east of the triangular intersection of Percival with Old Percival, and looks to have been out of business for a good while. At any rate, it's not listed in the 1998 phonebook.

Curiously, the only google hits I get for 2417 Percival Road are for a place called Mary J's which is also not in the current or 1998 phonebook..

UPDATE 4 May 2019 -- This lot appears to be in the process of being cleared. The building which sat behind B & B (and which I did not include in the original picture) is now gone:

The LoopNet listing for the property (which partially shows the razed building) says the lot is off the market, so presumably someone bought it and will be doing something new there.

Well, here's another closing in the same general vicinity of Two Notch. Hola Mexico was somewhat off the road, in a little plaza behind Rush's. I was aware of the place, but had never gotten around to going in there. Reader Nancy writes:

This was a family run business and the food was always excellent.

Too bad.

If you look at the pictures, you can tell that the facade had a South-West theme with cacti that has just been removed. There was work ongoing when I drove by, so perhaps something is in the works.

UPDATE 29 March 2010: Changed post title to add "(Moving?)" based on the comments. Added several more pictures.

UPDATE 16 April 2010: Added picture of the neon sign.

UPDATE 3 June 2010 -- The move into the old McDonald's/ Zesto / Awesome Mattress building is progressing, and the name is finally on the building:

UPDATE 8 May 2011 -- The new location is open, and has been for a while:

UPDATE 21 February 2025: Adding map icon and updating tags.

Shop at the Brown Sign With the Sewing Machine in the Corner!

At one time, South Carolina was a major player in the textile field, and I always assumed that these "factory outlet" stores scattered across the state had some South Carolina "factory" behind them, though it was never spelled out in the long running series of radio ads that always included the tag line about the sign.

I never went into one myself, but they were a feature in various shopping trips made by my female relatives. I can't remember all the locations now, but for sure there were Columbia (actually West Columbia / Triangle City), Salley and Surfside Beach.

The first pictures are of the old Surfside Beach location. This storefront (briefly an alteration shop) is at 1511 Highway 17 North (on the east side of US-17 Business between Inlet Square Mall and SC-544). Since these pictures were taken, they have finally gotten around to taking down the brown sign.

The final picture is of the West Columbia location in Triangle City. Their sign is long gone, and the location now seems to be an eyeglass botique.

I don't know exactly what happened to The Factory Outlets. My presumption is that "the factory" closed during the decline of the domestic textile industry, but that's just a guess. At any rate, while the 12th Street location was in the 1998 phonebook, I don't think it (or they) lasted much later than that.

UPDATE 25 Sep 2010 -- Well, I found the Darlington Factory Outlet (1486 Harry Byrd Highway -- almost across the street from the racetrack), and it looks like you can still get women's fashions there!

(also added the street address for the Surfside Beach location)

UPDATE 10 July 2020: Added some tags. Also adding the map icon for the 12th street location.

This building, across the street from Richland Mall and just south of Moe's has been a number of things over the years, with none of them seeming to last long. Right now, I can only find two other names (and a Doctor's practice) before H2, but I'm sure there were many others as loopnet says the building dates back to 1969. Part of my difficulty may be that the address is sometimes given as "2100 Beltline Boulevard" and sometimes as "2100 N Beltline Boulevard". One operation I sort of recall had an odd name as though it was a Christian Youth Fraternity or something like that.

I'm not sure what "joining" means in the case of H2 and Tonic. I suspect it just means "we transferred your membership". The H2 facebook page seems unchanged since last year, so it's possible the place was closed for a while before I noticed it.

UPDATE 21 May 2010 -- Here's an ad for European Health Spas (as mentioned in the comments) from the 19 Feb 1979 edition of The State. I can explain why the street address doesn't match. The ad lists 2204, which apparently doesn't exist today (at least as google-able retail), but clearly the ad namechecks "Richland Mall". Perhaps there was a street renumbering in the 1980s? Anyway I've added it to the post title and here's the ad:

UPDATE 29 July 2010 -- Apparently it's going to be Austral Salon next:

This building, at the intersection of Percival Road and Old Percival Road, which loopnet says was built in 1960, has been a variety of things over the years. I used to be aware of it peripherally in the 1970s when I started to drive, and would go out to Bell Camp via Percival Road, and later when I would take Screaming Eagle Road to the beach. The only two tenants I can locate via google are Davis Open Air Market, which I kind of remember, and Percival Quick Stop which I do not.

I'm not really sure when the last business closed here, but I think it's been vacant for several years. The next incarnation, a Latin sports bar, looks nearly ready to open.

UPDATE 28 March 2019: Add tags and map icon.

I believe this Hallmark store in Dutch Square occupied the same space as Browz-A-Bit.

I used to go into Browz-A-Bit all the time, but I can only specifically recall going into Kitty's once. As you may have gathered if you have read a lot of these posting, I'm a big fan of The Beach Boys, and for reasons which probably only make sense to them, they released a CD of live recordings and member solo tracks, Songs From Here and Back exclusively through Hallmark stores a few years back, and I picked up my copy (it's reallly pretty good) at Kitty's.

This story from The State says that sales at the Dutch Square location had declined from a million dollars a year to two hundred and fifty thousand, a decrease of 75%! Given that, I can see how closing the store made sense. Obviously this is bad for the struggling mall though. It's recently lost two national brands with this and Chick-Fil-A closing. On the plus side, it has gotten two new local restaurants, though the re-opening of the D'Avino's space as another pizzeria probably really only counts as restoring the status-quo from a mall point of view.

24 August 2022: Updating tags and adding map icon.

Spinnaker's was at one time a fairly popular casual dining restaurant along the lines of Bennigan's or TGI Friday's. To differentiate themselves from the casual pack, they had two branding gimmicks.

First, they would generally locate as part of a mall rather than in a free-standing building, and second, they would bake the complimentary table bread in a glazed terra-cotta flower pot and bring it still in the hot pot to your table.

When I started working in Augusta, Regency Mall was already on the way down, and Augusta Mall was in its prime with a Spinnaker's on the Rich's side of the mall. On the Grand Strand, Spinnaker's had locations at both Briarcliff Mall (now Myrtle Beach Mall) and Inlet Square. In fact, I blame the loss of Spinnaker's at Inlet Square for the start of that unhappy mall's long (and continuing) downward spiral as the space was never re-leased.

The Inlet Square closing was the first one I noticed for Spinnaker's, and my memory is that it was fairly early on, perhaps in the early 90s. After that, it seemed as though every time I drove by a former location, it was gone. I believe the Briarcliff location closed next, followed by the Augusta one. According to The State's archives, this location at Columbiana Centre was open as recently as November 2001. At least one location was open as recently as November 2009 (picture also here). I'm thinking that one lived on as a legacy on the strength of the local operators as I can't seem to find any corporate site for the chain.

While I don't know why Spinnaker's went into decline, I can only say that I personally found it rather average. In particular, I recall two things: The French Onion Soup was chicken based rather than beef based, making it distinctly sub-standard in my opinion, and the Flower Pot Bread was a better concept than actuality as it tended to stick to the pot giving you a mangled loaf when you tried to get it out and was actually a very bland and uninspired recipie.

Until quite recently, the interior mall corridor at Columbia Centre still had the doors into the vacant Spinnaker's space. Within the last year, they have covered the whole facade over with a mural of a walking girl sporting Rapunzel hair and vending machines.

UPDATE 2 March 2010 -- Here's the empty Spinnaker's spot in Inlet Square Mall in Murrells Inlet:

UPDATE 26 march 2010: Changed closing date to "mid-2000s" based on comments.

UPDATE 9 October 2017 -- Finally a new restaurant! This spot is now a Red Robin:

According to this Loopnet posting, there were three Larrry's Giant Subs up for sale at the same time, either retaining the Larry's franchaise, or as restaurant space. I would guess then that they were all run as part of the same operation.

I have not checked the Sunset Boulevard location, but both the Broad River Road and Garners Ferry locations have already been taken on by Steve's #1 Sub Contractor. In the case of the Broad River Road operation, this puts Steve's back very close to to their former location at Broad River & Saint Andrews.

I find it a little odd that the places flipped from one "guy's first name" chain to another "guy's first name" chain!

Also look how Steve's has pulled the "Giant" from the Garners Ferry sign. I know that it's just because it's not part of their branding, but it almost leads one to think that perhaps the size of the subs will be decreasing..

(Hat tip to commenter Alicia.)

UPDATE 28 Oct 2010 -- Well, Steve's didn't last long at all:

UPDATE 23 October 2011: Well, I wish I would have done this post as two separate entries, one for each location, but the Garners Ferry Steve's location is set to become Japan Grill:

UPDATE 3 November 2011: Well, it turns out I did do a separate entry for the Garners Ferry location, but never indexed it. What a mess! I'll copy the Japan Grill pix over there too and index it, but it will still be a mess!

UPDATE 25 October 2018: Add tags for both locations, but still a mess.

I've always thought there would be a great routine for a Southern comic like Jeff Foxworthy to do. It would go something like:

So you forgot your Anniversary, and you're in the doghouse with your wife. Well, fellas, your wife is always waiting for you to say those three little words -- those three little words that can make it all better, make her remember why she married you. So just put your arms around her, put your lips to her ear and say: "Hot Doughnuts Now?"

Ok, that probably explains both why I'm not a comedian and why I'm not married, but still Krispy Kreme is kind of woven into the fabric of the South, such that the brand's troubles of the last few years have had me worried that the over-expansion to new areas might bring on a collapse in the heartland.

That made me a bit nervous when I started seeing hits on the blog from people searching on various keyword combinations of "Krispy Kreme Columbia closing", but when I went over there last week, everything seemed fine. There were no signs up warning of anything, and late evening business was very brisk.

Then I saw the comment this morning from Kenneth that the Knox Abbott location was in fact closed, followed by a comment from Rebecca saying

I don't know why I didn't see any fliers last week, but when I drove over there today, I was quite reassured: There were actually plenty of guys working on the remodel. Often a"closed for remodeling" sign is just hopeful wish, but in this case it seems to be the real deal.

Of course, this location was remodeled fairly recently -- within the last ten years, I think, and it was not an improvement. The old setup had nice padded booths for seating, and I could sit by the east window with my doughnuts and coffee and watch the Jiffy Lube to see if they had pulled my car around yet. They yanked all those out and replaced them with a bunch of really uncomfortable and unsightly industrial tables and chairs.

I'm a bit worried about he Kool Kreme thing Rebecca mentions as well. That makes it sound like they are trying to emulate the Dunkin' Donuts / Baskin-Robbins co-location concept, which I think would be brand dilution and a big mistake. (Among other reasons, I'll bet they find they're not selling much ice-cream at 11pm and start closing early.)

(Hat tip to commenter Kenneth.)

UPDATE 9 April 2010 -- Well, there is obviously some more cosmetic work to be done to the exterior, but the store is open again, with a new doughnut assembly line and soft ice cream:

UPDATE 13 March 2025: Updating tags and adding map icon.