Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Over the years I have eaten more often at the, vanished, franchaised, D's Wings locations than the flagship store in Parkland Plaza. I guess the last time I ate here was probably in 2018 or 2019 -- and it was fine, as usual.

This move, to 415 Meeting Street, has long been in the works, since they found out their lease would not be renewed. This still strikes me as odd, as Parkland Plaza is not exactly overbrimming with stable tenants.

Here is a story from The State about the move, and here is one from ColaDaily.

You can see the new building in the last two pictures, and there is clearly yet some work to be done there in advance of the posited 1 June opening. I have to say I agree with commenter Lone Wolf that parking will be an issue here.

Diamond Lane used to be a moderately popular shopping destination, leading to Sam Solomons, as well as having a number of strip mall businesses facing the road. It also offered convenient back access to the Broad River Road facing businesses.

I noticed recently first that all the Broad River Road businesses' parking lot through-access to Diamond Lane had been cut off by gating. More recently I noticed that access to Diamond Lane itself is blocked from Dutch Square Boulevard. I understand that Word of God Church & Ministries has bought up the old Intersection Center complex, but I'm a bit puzzled, as I thought Diamond Lane was a public road.

UPDATE 17 February 2023 -- While Diamond Lane has been re-opened to Dutch Square Boulevard, the end which went around behind Intersection Center to connect with Statler Road has now been closed and it is now a dead-end street:

There is new construction and a new business of some sort down there which I'm sure is the reason.

According to commenter Mr. Hat, Lita's Treats dessert bakery, in what's left of the food court at Dutch Square is moving to 800 Lake Murray Boulevard. This is the old Piggly Wiggly shopping center, now home to Stars & Strikes. Interestingly (or not) there was previously a cupcake bakery in that complex.

(Hat tip to commenter Mr. Hat)

UPDATE 22 June 2021 -- Here is the new location:

It looks like Tootsies on Forest Drive will be closing soon, as they are currently running a 30% off retirement sale. It might be a good time to pick up some summer shoes before the beach..

Ristorante Divino left their location at 803 Gervais Street in mid-2020, to move next door to the Dupre Building at 807 Gervais street (which you can see fully in the last shot). As part of that move, the owners rebranded the restaurant as Di Vino Rosso. WLTX has the here.

It was certainly an audacious time to move a restaurant, but it seems to have worked out.

Pelican's was the follow-on in this building to a number of operations, including San Jose and Tomlinson's Used Furniture. They opened here in in 2016, but have now moved downtown to 442 Meeting Street.

In the meantime, this building seems to have been split into two units, with the righthand side now occupied by a financial services company.

UPDATE 11 February 2025: Updating tags.

Here's another place that came and went without my being aware of it at all.

According to The State, Black Bean Co. was a charleston based mini-chain which

specialize[d] in healthier versions of sandwiches and salads and bowls.

They were bought out by another Charleston chain gogogreens, which rebranded the Charleston store and closed the Columbia location. For some reason after three years, they don't seem to have either sold the location or done anything with it.

17 June 2022: Updating map icon, adding a few pictures from the grand opening:

Here's another consequence of the Bi-Lo/Food Lion deal: The Food Lion on Platt Springs road has vacated its original location and has moved into the old Bi-Lo site on Emanuel Church Road. As of yet, there is nothing in the building.

UPDATE 10 May 2021 -- Here is the relocated store in its new location at 2916 Emanuel Church Road:

I have written about this spot twice. Once when it was no longer a Quincy's and again when it was no longer a Maurice's BBQ.

After Maurice moved out, the original building was razed, and a new building was run up. It was to be a Blossom Buffet, and clearly looks stylistically similar to the Jasmine Buffet on Two Notch.

However COVID happened, and that fell through (that's my guess, anyway) and now the new, mostly finished, building is for sale.

UPDATE 29 June 2021 OK, mea culpa, this place is now in fact open as noted in the comments. The real estate sign that confused me and made me think the whole building was up for sale without the buffet opening is apparently for prospective retail space on the south side of the building:

UPDATE 2 March 2022: It turns out that Blossom Buffet is a moved and reflagged Happy China Buffet from down the street.

Sunshine Cafe & Catering was the follow-on operation in this Sunset Boulevard storefront to Carolina Cafe. Judging from the google reviews, the last of which was dated from a month ago, they seem to have made it through the worst of the pandemic and then closed down somewhere around the end of March.

Here is a ColaDaily story on the opening of this place from January 2020.

UPDATE 28 February 2022 -- Now Cucinella's pizza: